Arnon Grunberg

Measures

Election

Der Spiegel on Russian cyber attack campaigns in Germany:

'Internet experts like Anke Domscheit-Berg, a member of parliament for the far-left Left Party, even go so far as to say that German agencies like the new Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector (ZITiS) may be partly to blame for the latest uptick in cyber attacks. ZITiS is tasked with making it possible for intelligence agencies to decipher encrypted communications. To do so, it must identify software vulnerabilities on its own or buy such information from elsewhere. But Domscheit-Berg sees it as the government's duty to close these security gaps as quickly as possible. Likewise, the domestic policy spokesman for the parliamentary group of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Burkhard Lischka, says that the German government should first focus on making its own network more secure. He says that there are clearly vulnerabilities in the system that security agencies like the BSI have failed to recognize.

On the political front, the hacker attacks reveal the extent to which German-Russian relations have suffered in recent years. Both sides eye each other with suspicion and distrust and Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to no longer have any qualms about antagonizing the Germans.

One silver lining is that Moscow and Berlin are at least still on speaking terms. Last year, Merkel reportedly warned Putin that there would be consequences if Russia interfered with the German general election. Afterward there were evidently no attempts at manipulation, but the hacker attacks continued quietly in the background.

So far, the German government has failed to take tougher measures. No ambassadors have been summoned; no sanctions against Russia have been imposed for engaging in cyber attacks.

That restraint, however, could simply be a reflection of the fact that espionage is simply part of day-to-day reality, even for democratic countries like Germany. Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND), after all, also has Russian targets in its sights.'

Read the article here.

The cyber attack, part of day-to-day reality. Now that's realism. And old-fashioned espionage, even cyber espionage, is much more honorable than interference in elections and spreading "fake news".
Espionage is part of a gentlemen's agreement. Sort of.

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