The Netherlands cannot defend itself well against cyber attacks from countries such as Russia and China. That is what outgoing outgoing minister Henk Kamp (Defence, VVD) says in an interview with NRC. “We need to have an adequate defense against cyber attacks, but that won’t work if you have to go through all the procedures and rules,” says Kamp.
Read the entire interview with Minister Henk Kamp: ‘Hands are tied behind our backs’
The Ministries of the Interior and Defense are therefore working on a temporary amendment of the Intelligence and Security Services Act (Wiv). With such a temporary arrangement, the intelligence services MIVD and AIVD should be better able to repel cyber attacks. Kamp does not want to say what exactly needs to change in the intelligence law: “I am not going to give examples.”
Last November, the NOS reported on the basis of anonymous sources that the cabinet wants to make it easy to hack computer servers if it turns out that they are being used for cyber attacks. Now the AIVD and MIVD must each time request permission from the Assessment Committee Deployment of Powers (TIB). The Council of Ministers discussed the subject on 26 November, but no decisions have been made yet.
Hackers are jumping faster and faster between servers and providers to disguise their activities. The response of the Dutch services to this is too “static”, AIVD director Erik Akerboom told radio station BNR last month. In the case of a major cyber attack by Russia, for example, “we only have an hour to hack back”, says Akerboom: “But the law says: ‘First make a plan’. But then you are often too late and you lose sight of what is happening”.
Bottlenecks
Last year, an evaluation committee concluded that the Wiv from 2017 has ‘bottlenecks’ and therefore needs to be revised. The government believes that the law should be amended, but this could take years.
According to Kamp, this is taking too long. According to the outgoing minister, the Netherlands is increasingly threatened by states with an “aggressive cyber policy”. Because, according to him, time is of the essence, he and his colleague Kajsa Ollongren (Internal Affairs, D66) have been working on an emergency bandage in recent months. “The next cabinet will have to decide on that.” In that cabinet, Ollongren will be the successor to Kamp op Defense. A concrete proposal is expected within a few months, according to sources.
However, a temporary adjustment of the Wiv is sensitive if this would mean that the supervision of the services is limited. Earlier proposals by the Evaluation Committee to reduce the powers of the TIB met with major objections from the two supervisors, the TIB and the Commission of Oversight of the Intelligence and Security Services (CTIVD).
A temporary amendment to the law is sensitive if this would mean that the supervision of the security services is limited
TIB chairman Mariëtte Moussault even threatened to resign if the proposals became law. Kamp sees the sensitivities. “Supervision must remain meaningful,” says the outgoing minister. “But in such a way that we can defend ourselves.”
The ISS Act 2017 was introduced to give AIVD and MIVD the option of tapping data traffic on the cable. “That has not happened since then, because the supervisor always rejects an application from the MIVD or AIVD,” says Kamp.
Kamp also says that defense in the Netherlands will close locations, such as barracks, and build new locations. According to him, the defense real estate is not only poorly maintained but “also impractical and for a large part spread over the whole of the Netherlands”. That is why Defense will “concentrate real estate at a number of locations”. He would not say which locations it concerns.
Interview Henk Kamp page 8-9
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 4, 2022
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