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Volker Wissing (FDP): "We must be ready to speak out about the weaknesses openly"
Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
The G7 countries want to help Ukraine with hardware so that the country can better protect itself against cyber attacks in the war against Russia.
"This is also a war on the Internet and that is why Ukraine must also be defended on the Internet," said Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) on the sidelines of a meeting of the G7 digital ministers in Düsseldorf.
It is still unclear which technology will be sent.
The Ukrainian counterpart Mykhailo Fedorov, who was online at the meeting, announced that he would send a list with the exact needs.
In addition to the Federal Republic of Germany, the »Group of 7« includes the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan.
Germany currently chairs the group, so Federal Minister Wissing is hosting the event in the Rhineland.
The Liberal presented a G7 statement entitled "Cyber resilience of digital infrastructures in the face of Russian war against Ukraine".
In it, the seven states condemned Moscow's war of aggression "in the strongest possible terms."
"We express our solidarity with the Ukrainian people and express our heartfelt condolences to the victims of the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces," the G7 document reads.
Higher cyber resilience, different error culture
The authors emphasize that in free societies the digital infrastructure “must be protected against malicious interference and influence by authoritarian regimes”.
Congratulations to Ukraine "for having managed to maintain communications networks under extremely difficult circumstances".
According to the declaration, the G7 countries are committed to increasing the cyber resilience of their digital infrastructure and to coordinating cyber defense more closely with each other.
Another result of the meeting: Germany and Canada want to set up a joint working group that will analyze and evaluate hacker attacks in the future.
One wants to learn from these findings in order to make progress on the subject of Internet security.
Other G7 countries have also signaled their approval and might also take part, said Wissing.
The German minister also spoke of the importance of a different error culture.
"It shouldn't be the case that when a cyber attack occurs, it is kept quiet because it's somehow uncomfortable," said Wissing.
"We have to be willing to speak openly about the weaknesses that we see so that we can close the gaps." The realization that one can only learn from mistakes must also apply to cybersecurity, he said.
The industry association BDI meanwhile called for closer cooperation among the G7 on digital policy and cyber security.
"The war in Ukraine is a wake-up call for greater digital sovereignty in the G7," said BDI President Siegfried Russwurm in a statement.
It is now important for the G7 countries to reduce their strategic dependence on authoritarian states.
The G7 digital ministers' meeting, which EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager also attended, will continue on Wednesday.
Then further steps should be discussed in order to intensify cooperation between the seven industrialized countries on Internet issues.
For example, there is the question of how the energy efficiency of data centers can be improved - such systems consume enormous amounts of electricity.
The ministers also want to discuss how the free flow of data can be guaranteed.
bbr/dpa