Since February 24, 2022, Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. The military war is flanked by cyber attacks. This is shown by the revelations about the so-called “Vulkan Files”, which come from an anonymous whistleblower. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) now told ZDF that the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) must be strengthened in order to be better protected against attacks.
The “Vulkan Files” show that the Russian secret service is supported by the Moscow IT company “NTC Vulkan”. This was reported by a team of journalists from “Spiegel”, “ZDF”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and other international media.
While the Moscow-based company officially acts as a software developer, according to the research, it also works for the Russian military intelligence service GRU, the domestic intelligence service FSB and the foreign intelligence service SWR. The actual tasks of the company are presented in the “Vulkan Files”:
- “Disabling control systems of rail, air and sea transportation.”
- “Disruption to energy companies and critical infrastructure.”
- “Identifying critical infrastructure vulnerabilities in order to attack them.”
- “Access to unwanted data channels is blocked.”
- “Requests from users are redirected to desired internet resources in designated territories.”
Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser wants to prevent this and strengthen the competences of the Federal Criminal Police Office. However, it is not about “aggressive counter-attacks” to attack attackers themselves. Incidentally, the coalition agreement of the traffic light parties does not allow this either. “We fundamentally reject hackbacks as a means of cyber defence,” says the coalition agreement. According to Faeser, sanctions against companies involved are possible. “If we have been proven and it has been proven under the rule of law that companies support state attacks, then that must also be sanctioned.”
In addition, it is “of course that we have the power to recognize and stop the attacks. However, we need these powers and I see these powers in best hands with the Federal Criminal Police Office,” the interior minister told ZDF. It is also important that Western companies check their careers “very carefully” when hiring new IT employees so that they do not become a security risk. (tsp)
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Source: Tagesspiegel
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