Interior Minister wants to enable "defensive strikes" against cyberattacks

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt wants to give German security authorities more options to react to ongoing or imminent cyber attacks. However, not through hackbacks, but through "defensive strikes" against ongoing or imminent cyber attacks, Dobrindt said in an interview.

In Germany, we are experiencing a permanent hybrid threat through cyberattacks, espionage, sabotage, and increasingly through drones, Dobrindt said in a Handelsblatt interview. When asked about cyberattacks and acts of sabotage from Russia and the dangers for local companies and critical infrastructure. A significant portion of these attacks comes from Russia. However, the Interior Minister also increasingly sees China as the country of origin for cyber attacks.

No cyber counter-strikes

Now the threshold to a new phase of escalation with Russia has been crossed, to which we must react. It is not enough to simply survive cyberattacks with as little damage as possible. However, Dobrindt denies whether he therefore wants to enable cyber counter-strikes, so-called hackbacks. "It is about stopping ongoing or imminent attacks," said Dobrindt. "For this, within the framework of threat defense, we must be able to disable the server infrastructure or the digital systems of attackers, even abroad," he explained.

"I am currently preparing a legislative amendment so that in the future we can attack the perpetrators of cyber attacks against Germany to ward off the attack and the danger, even if their servers are located outside the Federal Republic," he explained. The law is to be presented to the cabinet next year. The security authorities, which are to develop and use corresponding capabilities, will then be responsible for such "attacks on perpetrators of cyber attacks." The goal is not to carry out our attacks but to disable threat infrastructure. "So purely defensive strikes, no offensive actions," Dobrindt clarified.

Although threat defense is fundamentally a matter for the states. "However, the federal security authorities already have constitutionally protected powers of action in certain areas that are relevant here. And they sometimes cooperate with the states on this." Dobrindt did not answer whether a constitutional amendment would be necessary for the planned additional federal tasks.

In the current coalition agreement mentions this, that the federal government, which has been in office since this year, wants to expand its capabilities for active cyber defense within the framework of "what is constitutionally possible." In addition, it wants to further develop the national cybersecurity strategy.

The traffic light coalition principally rejected hackbacks as a means of cyber defense in its national security strategy and in the coalition agreement. At the same time, however, it strove for "the creation of a federal competence for threat defense in the event of serious cyber attacks from home and abroad by amending the Basic Law." Above all, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) advocated for this.

(nen)