Germany is beefing up its cybersecurity capabilities
under a new strategy approved this week. Federal services will
create a new cyber response force across German law enforcement
agencies. Berlin has also allocated financing for a new spy
satellite.
On Thursday a number of German news outlets reported that the
country’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst
(BND), will soon receive its own espionage satellite after the
Budget Committee approved the first tranche of financing for the
project this week.
According to reports, the project, proposed by German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, would cost around €400 million ($435.32 million) and
is expected to be ready by 2022. The BND wants to develop the
satellite system using the German army (Bundeswehr) and the German
Aerospace Center, with an additional 400 new employees appointed to
the spy agency to run the new project.
Currently, the BND relies on data from the Bundeswehr, which
operates a number of small satellites. Further intelligence comes
from the purchase of data from foreign partner agencies.
Before financing for the spy satellite was given the green light
by the Chancellor’s office, German intelligence was jointly
pursuing a project with the US. The "Hiro" project, which collapsed
in 2010, envisioned placing three satellites at a height of 500
kilometers. The high-resolution images from the satellites were to
be used for commercial interests and disaster prevention, in
addition to offering extra surveillance capabilities to the
BND.
But six years after the talks collapsed the Chancellor’s office
agreed to finance the country’s own project, claiming that such a
venture would raise employment in the defense sector.
Challenged with a rising terrorist threat and increased level of
cyberattacks, the German cabinet adopted a cybersecurity strategy
on Wednesday and created the so-called Mobile Incident Response
Teams (MIRT) within the Federal Office for Information Security
(BSI) to tackle online threats.
Similar special cyber-units will also be created at the Federal
Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Federal Office for the Protection
of the Constitution (BfV). Germany's Cyber Defense Center will
supervise the inter-agency coordination and cooperation.
According to the latest BSI report, released Wednesday, an
increased number of sophisticated malware continues to target IT
systems in Germany, bypassing anti-virus programs. The number of
spam messages with malicious software in their appendix rose by
1,270 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to the previous
year, BSI said, claiming that traditional anti-virus defenses had
lost their effectiveness.
As part of the cyber strategy to tackle the growing threat,
Berlin wants to also increase awareness and achieve greater
cooperation and information sharing between the public and private
sectors.
The government warns that the focus of the attacks is on water
and energy supply companies, in addition to government networks,
and research facilities. The Federal Office for Information
Security also warned politicians of cyberattacks.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere accused Beijing and
Moscow of staging attacks on Germany as he warned of possible cyber
and disinformation campaigns directed from Russia to influence the
German national elections. He stressed that "bots" can be used to
manipulate social media to influence public opinion.
"These cyberattacks pose such a level of threat, in that they
specifically target the democratic decision-making process. If they
are successful, I foresee a danger for peaceful society and for our
democracy," the Minister said.
Maziere echoed Merkel’s message voiced on Tuesday, when the
Chancellor, without a shred of evidence, claimed that Germany could
experience similar cyberattacks to those which have been reported
in the US.
"We already know that we have to deal with reports from Russia
or also with cyberattacks from Russian sources or even with the
reports from which we are confronted to some extent with false
information," Merkel said at a joint press conference with the
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. "To deal with this is our
daily task and therefore it … will also play a role in the
elections."
Accusations of Russian involvement in the US presidential race
began to surface this summer after Democratic National Committee
(DNC) emails were published by WikiLeaks on July 22, 2016. While
offering no proof, the Democrats accused the Kremlin of hacking
into their computer networks and publishing sensitive information
in order to swing the election in favor of Hillary Clinton’s GOP
rival Donald Trump.
In particular, Clinton claimed that Russia had supplied the
whistleblower website WikiLeaks with emails hacked from the account
of her campaign chair, John Podesta.