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Arne Schönbohm, President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) 2019
Photo: WOLFGANG RATTAY/ REUTERS
After Russia's attack on Ukraine, the threat of cyber attacks in Germany has increased further.
As early as last fall, a "red alert" had to be declared in parts, said the President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, on Thursday at the "Potsdam Conference on National Cyber Security".
The situation has continued to deteriorate since Russia invaded Ukraine, even if no centrally controlled campaign has been identified so far.
On the one hand, there is an increased abstract threat, said the BSI boss at the conference of the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI).
But there were also concrete attacks.
An attack on the German subsidiary of the Russian oil company Rosneft almost led to a massive disruption in mineral oil distribution, especially in the greater Berlin and Brandenburg area.
"That was just averted because we managed to get Rosneft Germany's IT systems up and running again at short notice."
In his lecture, Schönbohm blamed »hacktivists« from the Anonymous collective for the attack.
Rosneft Germany was targeted by the attackers as a supposedly Russian target because the company is part of the critical infrastructure in Germany.
The perpetrators are becoming more and more professional
Russia's attack on Ukraine also harbors the risk of collateral damage.
In the cyber attack against the Viasat satellite service KA-SAT used by the Ukrainian military, the operators of wind turbines in Germany were also affected because the remote maintenance of the wind turbines was also carried out via KA-SAT.
The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, pointed out the rapidly increasing number of crimes being committed in cyberspace.
While criminal offenses such as theft and violent crime are declining, the number of recorded cyber crimes has more than doubled since 2015.
Crimes on the Internet are now offered as a service (»Crime-as-a-Service«).
The BKA recorded a constant professionalization of the perpetrators.
As a result, increasingly complex cyber attacks are possible.
In order to break this trend, prosecutors would also have to develop, demanded Münch.
For example, the BKA provides the police in the federal states and municipalities with financially and technically sophisticated solutions for fighting crime.
This should also ensure that local police stations are able to efficiently process reports of criminal offenses on the Internet.
mak/dpa