German intelligence services may be allowed to launch pre-emptive cyberattacks against Russia

Marc Henrichmann, chairman of the German Bundestag's Parliamentary Oversight Panel and member of the Christian Democratic Union party, wants Germany's intelligence services, which he says need to be "rebuilt from the ground up", to be given powers to carry out pre-emptive cyberattacks against Russian drone manufacturers.

Source: European Pravda, citing Die Welt

Details: Henrichmann said that Germany's Federal Intelligence Service and Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution need "the necessary legal and technical capabilities" to identify threats originating from Russia in good time.

This is part of an intelligence service reform that Henrichmann is currently helping to develop. "Simply gathering information will no longer be enough in the future. The best drone is one that never takes off and therefore never poses a threat to human life in Germany," he stressed.

"We really need to give our services the capability to, ideally, paralyse and disable an attack drone in Russia or the factory where it is produced before it can be deployed against a German airport or threaten people's lives and health in Germany," he said.

Henrichmann said Germany's intelligence services need to be "rebuilt from the ground up". On Wednesday 12 August, the German government is due to discuss amendments to the laws governing the Federal Intelligence Service and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Background:

• The discussions come amid an investigation into an incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport in which a drone equipped with explosives and a detonator was found near a Ukrainian aircraft after reaching the site undetected.
• According to German investigators, the drone was heading towards the wing of the Ukrainian aircraft but, by sheer chance, failed to explode. It bounced off the wing and fell to the ground.
• US intelligence has linked the incident to Russia, while the Russian Embassy in Berlin has described the Leipzig incident as a fabricated provocation.

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