Numerous press articles, including research by German public television, uncovered possible connections to a cyber security consulting association.
The head of Germany’s cybersecurity agency was fired on Tuesday following media reports of his lack of distance from Russia, amid concerns in Berlin over possible acts of sabotage by Moscow.
“Minister of the Interior (Nancy) Faeser decided today to remove the President of the Federal Office for Cyber Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, from office with immediate effect,” said a ministry spokesman in an email statement.
Connections to a cybersecurity advisory association
Arne Schönbohm has been in the hot seat for more than a week after press articles about his affiliation with a cybersecurity advisory association that itself suspects of having contacts with Russian secret services.
The ministry spokesman said that these allegations had permanently damaged “the necessary public trust in the neutrality and impartiality” of the president of Germany’s most important cyber security authority.
“This is even more true in the current crisis situation of Russian hybrid warfare,” he added.
The ministry made it clear that a review of the allegations was underway and that the presumption of innocence “applied as a matter of course”.
53-year-old Arne Schönbohm, in office since February 2016, was elected by the government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Revelations by German public television
The appointment of the former manager of the German-French aviation group EADS was criticized at the time, above all by the Greens, who are in power today.
“One can ask oneself whether the security staffing of previous CDU-CSU governments (conservatives, editor’s note) were the best possible,” commented cybersecurity expert Markus Beckedahl recently in an interview with the public broadcaster SWR.
Continue reading
Arne Schönbohm has been suspected of alleged contacts with the “Cyber Security Council Germany” for more than a week.
The Berlin-based association, co-founded by Arne Schönbohm in 2012, advises companies, authorities and politicians on cyber security issues.
These connections were the subject of investigations that were presented in a program on the public television channel ZDF in early October.
One of the CSRD member companies is specifically targeted. This company, called Protelion, is a subsidiary of the Russian cybersecurity company OAO Infotecs, which was founded by a former employee of the Russian secret service KGB, according to the research network Policy Network Analytics.
Russians behind the hacking of Bundestag computers?
Arne Schönbohm assured the magazine “Der Spiegel” on Tuesday that he did not know “what the ministry checked and what the specific allegations” against him are. He claims that he himself applied to be subjected to disciplinary proceedings for this reason.
In a previous article, Der Spiegel had “at least doubted that Protelion really plays an important role in the German cybersecurity architecture” and wondered whether the criticism of those responsible was not “a welcome opportunity for the government” to change the management of the BSI.
This dismissal comes at a time when Germany is wary of possible acts of sabotage from Moscow. On October 8, following leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines built to transport Russian gas to Europe, the country suffered large-scale rail sabotage, which some blamed on the Russian railways in connection with the war in Ukraine route have referred . . .
Russia was repeatedly accused of cyber-espionage against Germany even before it began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. She is specifically blamed for a large-scale computer hack that in 2015 targeted the computers of the Bundestag, the Bundestag and the services of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A necessary evil”
Olaf Scholz’s government has promised to prioritize strengthening computer security.
“We have paid too little attention to IT security over the past 20 or 30 years,” says expert Markus Beckedahl.
In Germany, he felt that this topic was “always a necessary evil in political and economic decision-making bodies, but not necessarily a basic requirement for the creation of sustainable infrastructure”.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
VIDEO – Russia, Ukraine: Should we fear cyber war?