Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has dismissed the President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm.
This was announced by a spokesman for her ministry on Tuesday in Berlin – the “Spiegel” had first reported. Schönbohm was criticized for a possible lack of distance to Russian secret service circles via the controversial association “Cyber Security Council Germany”.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, it has not yet been decided who will succeed him. The minister decided to prohibit Schönbohm “from conducting official business as President of the BSI with immediate effect,” the spokesman said. The background to this is not least the allegations that are well known and widely discussed in the media. These would have “permanently damaged the public’s necessary trust in the neutrality and impartiality of the administration as president of the most important German cyber security authority”. This applies all the more in the current crisis situation with regard to Russian hybrid warfare. The allegations in the room also affected the minister’s essential relationship of trust in the conduct of office.
While there was talk of a “pawn sacrifice” in Union circles, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that the decision was made “also out of concern for the person himself who is the focus of the debate”. It is also in the interests of the more than 1,500 employees of the BSI, who can now go about their work independently of personal speculation.
Irrespective of this, “all known allegations would be thoroughly and vigorously examined and subjected to a thorough evaluation”. Until the conclusion of this examination, the presumption of innocence applies to Schönbohm.
According to information from the German Press Agency, Faeser was annoyed that the BSI boss had continued to maintain contacts with the controversial association “Cyber Security Council Germany”, which he had co-founded and headed ten years ago, but which most recently because of connections to Russian criticized by the secret services.
Schönbohm’s connection to the controversial club had previously been discussed by Jan Böhmermann in the program “ZDF Magazin Royale”. On the one hand, it was about the Russia contacts of the “Cyber-Sicherheitsrat Deutschland e.V.”. On the other hand, the article targeted the Berlin cybersecurity company Protelion, which until recently was a member of the “Cyber Security Council Germany e.V.”.
The company operated under the name Infotecs GmbH until the end of March. This is a subsidiary of the Russian cybersecurity company O.A.O.Infotecs, which, according to information from the research network Policy Network Analytics, was founded by a former employee of the Russian intelligence service KGB. He was awarded a medal of honor by Russian President Vladimir Putin for his work.
On Monday last week, the association announced that the company had been excluded. “The actions of Protelion GmbH are a violation of the association’s goals of the Cyber Security Council Germany e.V.”, said association president Hans-Wilhelm Dünn. The allegations in the room are not compatible with the fight against cyber crime and the promotion of cyber security. Criticism of thin was also heard from security circles. Apparently, he was not sufficiently aware of the problem with regard to certain contacts with Russia.
