German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to dismiss the country’s cybersecurity chief for having contacts with people connected to the Russian security services, according to several German media outlets citing government sources. Faeser suspects, according to these reports, that Arne Schönbohm, president of the German Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI, in its German acronym), has ties to Russian agents through a controversial association, which he founded and managed, called the German Cyber Security Council.
This Thursday the BSI was scheduled to present its annual management report, but the event has been postponed. Schönbohm’s Russian connection has been commenting on social networks for several days after the well-known presenter Jan Böhmermann spoke about it on Friday in his comedy and political satire program Magazin Royale on ZDF public television. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior told the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that they are investigating the matter: “All options are being examined and how the situation should be addressed.” German law does not allow the head of cybersecurity to be dismissed out of hand.
Although its name seems to indicate that it is an official body, the German Cyber Security Council is nothing more than an association. It has been the subject of controversy for years because one of the associates is the cybersecurity company Protelion (which until last March operated under the name of Infotecs). Protelion, according to information from the Policy Network Analytics network, is a subsidiary of the Russian cybersecurity company OAO Infotecs, founded by a former employee of the KGB, the former Soviet secret services. According to the German media, the Ministry of the Interior had long been suspicious of Schönbohm and his links with the association and it had been suggested that he distance himself from her. Not only did he not do it, but he went to an act and publicly congratulated her on her tenth anniversary.
But what has precipitated the events is the ZDF program, which has made popular on Twitter the hashtags #cyberclown (cyberclown) and has transferred to public opinion what until now were little more than rumors in the circles of power in Berlin. The program revealed that the company allegedly sells software “made in Germany” security system and that its founder belonged to the KGB and received a medal of honor from Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, for his work.
Several deputies from different parties have questioned the suitability of Schönbohm on their social networks, pointing out that the case is much more serious than it may seem due to the humorous tone of the program. “These are scandalous facts that must be investigated and clarified immediately and exhaustively,” Green Konstantin von Notz said on Twitter. This deputy already criticized Schönbohm’s appointment at the end of 2015. He assured that he was not the most suitable person to chair the BSI because he was not a true independent cybersecurity expert, but a lobbyist and businessman.
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After the sabotage of the Russian Nord Stream pipelines, which transported gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, all affected countries have tightened the security of their critical infrastructure. Germany, also concerned about another sabotage that occurred this weekend against its rail networks, is now reviewing not only physical security, but cyber security to be prepared for attacks from what is known as “hybrid warfare”. The concern is greater due to the suspicion that organizations that must guarantee the security of the networks are infiltrated by foreign secret services.
Last March, a month after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the BSI urged companies and users to avoid using the popular antivirus and computer security programs from the Kaspersky company, created in Russia in 1997. According to the agency German, this firm, which claims to have more than 400 million users and 240,000 corporate clients in the world, represents “a considerable risk of a successful computer attack.”
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