Ukraine war threatens cyber security in Germany

The threat in cyberspace is higher than ever. This emerges from the current annual report of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Cyber ​​security in Germany is suffering primarily from the ongoing Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

“The threat in cyberspace is higher than ever”: This is one of the first sentences in the current annual report IT security situation in Germany 2022. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has identified a high threat from cybercrime this year.

BSI: Threat to cyber security on multiple levels

Germany’s cyber security threatened by war in Ukraine

According to the BSI, there have been a number of minor incidents and hacktivism campaigns in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

For example, there was collateral damage after attacks on satellite communications. This affected German wind turbines, whose remote maintenance failed.

The authority also cites a hacker attack on German mineral oil dealers with a Russian parent company as an example. However, no comprehensive attack campaign against German targets was evident.

Cyber ​​extortion from big companies is on the rise

According to the BSI, ransomware remains one of the main threats, especially for companies. In particular, the so-called “Big Game Hunting” has increased. High-revenue companies are blackmailed with encrypted and exfiltrated data.

Both the ransom and hush money payments reported by IT security service providers and the number of victims whose data was published on leak sites due to non-payment, for example, have continued to rise.

The BSI also lists the attack on a district administration in Saxony-Anhalt as a particularly serious example. A disaster was declared there in the course of the cyber attack.

Citizen-related services such as parental allowance, unemployment and social benefits or vehicle registrations were canceled for 207 days.

More cyber attacks on private individuals

In 2021 there were ten percent more vulnerabilities in software products than in the previous year. They can easily spread malicious programs to users’ end devices. The number of malicious program variants increased by around 116.6 million in the current reporting period and continues to rise steadily.

The BSI is particularly critical of the Log4j vulnerability. It is located in freely available software modules. Private individuals also continue to struggle with phishing emails, malicious email attachments and identity theft.

Cyber ​​security: BSI plans to expand the agency

Due to the tightened security situation in cyberspace, the BSI sees the expansion of the authority to become the central office for information security as an important step. The aim is to create a closely interlinked federal cyber defense system.

The past year has shown that unforeseen events can raise the threat situation to a new level and that collateral damage from cyber attacks in neighboring countries can also have a direct impact on Germany.

Accelerated digitization in all areas of everyday life – from the supply chains of international corporations, the business processes in small and very small companies, to the services of public institutions and the digital applications that almost every citizen uses every day – calls for a turning point in terms of “cyber security made in Germany”.

According to BIS, preventive IT security measures are therefore particularly important. Every computer system that cannot be hacked, every IT-based service that cannot be disrupted, is an elementary contribution to a functioning, digitally networked society.

BSI boss loses his post due to loss of trust

The BSI publishes a comprehensive overview of threats in cyberspace every year. The report came out two weeks late this year.

The reason for this was the discussions about ex-authority president Arne Schönbohm. He publicly fell out of favor with the Federal Minister of the Interior and for Heimat Nancy Faser and ultimately lost his office.

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