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Germany's Cybersecurity Chief Faces Dismissal, Reports Say (reuters.com) 33

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to dismiss the country's cybersecurity chief due to possible contacts with people involved with Russian security services, German media reported late on Sunday, citing government sources. Reuters reports: Arne Schoenbohm, president of the BSI federal information security agency, could have had such contacts through the Cyber Security Council of Germany, various outlets reported. Schoenbohm was a founder of the association, which counts as a member a German company that is a subsidiary of a Russian cybersecurity firm founded by a former KGB employee, they wrote. "These accusations must be decisively investigated," said Konstantin von Notz, the head of the parliamentary oversight committee for Germany's intelligence agencies.
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Germany's Cybersecurity Chief Faces Dismissal, Reports Say

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  • it's not just him (Score:2, Informative)

    by etash ( 1907284 )
    Germany has been for years in a Ribbentrop - Molotov v. 2.0 nat gas edition pact with Russia. "You give us cheap gas and we turn a blind eye, to whatever you do [including spreading like cancer in europe by financing every fringe group, such as far-right, far-left, anti-renewables, anti-climate change etc. etc.]".
    Schroder, Merkel, Scholz, Steinmeier, Gabriel, Karin Kneissl (Austria) are all russia's assets in Europe.
    It's also obvious from how Germany has reacted. Dragging her feet at helping Ukraine. In
    • Well, that shit is over. Germany is now planning to get the missing energy in the form of hydrogen from Canada, and Canada's not going to invade anybody. So now they are free to purge the Russian sympathizers.

      • Just means Canada is next to be invaded by the U.S.

        That's how the U.S. deals with other sovereign nations undercutting their merchant class.

        Sympathizers.. .lol... i can't decide if slashdot is infested with idiots or those employed to be here...

    • by allcoolnameswheretak ( 1102727 ) on Monday October 10, 2022 @07:08PM (#62954743)

      Schroder, Merkel, Scholz, Steinmeier, Gabriel, Karin Kneissl (Austria) are all russia's assets in Europe.

      Schroeder obviously yes. He willingly turned himself into Putin's lapdog. Merkel, Scholz, Steinmeier... no. They are not Russia's assets. They were just complacent and like many other European politicians thought that Putin's Russia could be modernized and tamed through trade and economic agreements.
      Let's get real. Most people, including most Ukrainians, didn't expect Putin would actually begin an all-out invasion and start a new major war in Europe.

      Russia's real assets are the far-right and populist parties that have been secretly funded by Russia over the last decade. This includes Putin's list of "friends" like Berlusconi, and yes, Trump.

      • by mrex ( 25183 )

        This includes Putin's list of "friends" like Berlusconi, and yes, Trump.

        Refresh my memory, but didn't the Trump administration make a big ballyhoo of sanctioning Germany over Nordstream, a position that the Democrat party opposed, Stephen Colbert mocked Trump for taking, and that Biden would campaign on reversing and did reverse in his first month in office?

        Instead of acknowledging and learning from that, you're just revising history?

    • Germany has been for years in a Ribbentrop - Molotov v. 2.0 nat gas edition pact with Russia.

      This is something the US was very vocal about when the started planning each pipeline. Germany said it's was non-sense but here we are. Now with both pipelines shutdown indefinitely (likely permanently) it's becoming clear that the pact is over and now a reckoning is in progress.

      • by gtall ( 79522 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @03:57AM (#62955569)

        That's nice but it is 20-20 hindsight. It wasn't a bad position to think the West could domesticate Russia. Kissinger-Nixon started this line of thinking with respect to China. The assumption was that those countries' dictators were not as powerful as they claimed and that the rest of their economies would force them to meet the West at least half-way. Now we know that is not the case.

        However, I fail to see any rush by Russians to support Putin's war. Most of the Russian nationalists seem content to sit in their living rooms and spout rhetoric rather than actually putting their feet where their mouths have been. That, seems to me, to be a result of normal people realizing that economic development trumps nationalism, regardless of how myopic Trump and his fellow useful idiots are.

        • It wasn't a bad position to think the West could domesticate Russia.

          What? Yes it was.

          Kissinger-Nixon started this line of thinking with respect to China.

          If Kissinger was involved with a plan, you know it was a bad plan.

          However, I fail to see any rush by Russians to support Putin's war.

          No, in fact arm-breaking is trending in their searches. But at this point even the most foolish plebes in Russia must know what is actually happening, if they want to know.

        • It wasn't a bad position to think the West could domesticate Russia.

          Thinking you can "domesticate" ANY dictatorship has ALWAYS been a bad idea. The difference here is that they learned this the hard way instead of learning from history.

      • by mrex ( 25183 )

        Now with both pipelines shutdown indefinitely (likely permanently) it's becoming clear that the pact is over and now a reckoning is in progress.

        For there to be a reckoning, wouldn't there have to be an acknowledgement of previous mistakes? Without that, isn't it likely that the same systems will reinforce the same outcomes again and again?

        • For there to be a reckoning, wouldn't there have to be an acknowledgement of previous mistakes?

          Yes but the fact that it hasn't been explicitly announced publicly does not imply that it has not happened behind the scenes.

    • by Briareos ( 21163 )

      Schroder, Merkel, Scholz, Steinmeier, Gabriel, Karin Kneissl (Austria) are all russia's assets in Europe.

      Well, last I heard Kneissl had relocated to Lebanon(?!?), so at least we're mostly rid of her...

  • by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Monday October 10, 2022 @06:37PM (#62954677)
    On the other hand, you do not get informations about opponents if you do not talk with them.
    • Sure you can, it's why spying was invented.

    • It's not even that, it's just a fairly boring story dressed up in scary terms. The company being mentioned is Kaspersky, one of the world's largest AV companies. For the head of the BSI to have had contacts with a large AV vendor is perfectly normal, and Kaspersky in particular have some excellent malware analysts and researchers and they publish good research. It was just bad luck that they're a Russian company in the current climate.
  • subsidiary of a Russian cybersecurity firm founded by a former KGB employee .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
  • by mseeger ( 40923 ) on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @01:43AM (#62955397)

    That guy is a party hack (nephew of an important Christian Democrat official) and was already called âoeCyberclownâ by a significant part of the German IT security specialist at the time of his installation.

  • I thought the proper procedure would be a quiet investigation first, so as not to alert the target and then arrest / take action as needed?

    If you publicly state you are going to fire, and have not fired / taken any action yet, how will you prevent the person from running off to Moscow overnight?

    Unless of course the public annoncement is made to see what the presumably closely observed / followed target is doing now?

    Spy games can be complicated, lol.

    • by splutty ( 43475 )

      Because it fits anti Russian posturing, regardless of whether it holds water or not.

      Being perceived to be anti Russian is more important in politics than actually doing anything about your dependency on Russia.

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