NEWS: Germany fires cybersecurity chief in connection with Russia

A Ger­man cyber­se­cu­ri­ty chief has been sacked after being accused of being too close to Rus­sia through a part­ner­ship he helped found.

Since 2016, Arne Schoen­baum has been Head of the Fed­er­al Cyber ​​Secu­ri­ty Office (BSI), respon­si­ble for pro­tect­ing gov­ern­ment communications.

Ger­man media have accused him of ties to Russ­ian intel­li­gence officials.

The Home Office is inves­ti­gat­ing alle­ga­tions against him.

How­ev­er, it was con­firmed that he was imme­di­ate­ly dismissed.

Schoen­bom has come under scruti­ny after Jan Boehmer­mann, Ger­many’s most pop­u­lar late-night show host, revealed pos­si­ble ties to Russ­ian com­pa­nies through his pre­vi­ous job. rice field.

Pri­or to lead­ing BSI, he found­ed and led the Ger­man Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, a pri­vate orga­ni­za­tion that advis­es com­pa­nies and pol­i­cy mak­ers on cybersecurity.

He attend­ed the asso­ci­a­tion’s 10th anniver­sary cer­e­mo­ny in Sep­tem­ber, and is said to have had a close rela­tion­ship with them.

One of the asso­ci­a­tion’s mem­bers was a cyber­se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­ny called Pro­te­ri­on, a sub­sidiary of a Russ­ian com­pa­ny alleged­ly found­ed by for­mer KGB mem­bers who were hon­ored by Pres­i­dent Putin.

Pro­te­ri­on was expelled from the asso­ci­a­tion last week­end, and the Ger­man Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil has said alle­ga­tions of ties to Russ­ian intel­li­gence are false.

A spokes­woman for Home Sec­re­tary Nan­cy Faz­er appears to have con­firmed that Mr Schoen­baum’s dis­missal fol­lows recent reports, say­ing, “The back­ground to this is the alle­ga­tions that have sur­faced and been wide­ly dis­cussed in the media. None oth­er than that,” he said.

“Nec­es­sary pub­lic con­fi­dence in the impar­tial­i­ty and impar­tial­i­ty of his lead­er­ship as pres­i­dent of Ger­many’s most impor­tant cyber­se­cu­ri­ty agency has been under­mined,” the spokesman said.

But they stressed that the chief of secu­ri­ty is “pre­sumed inno­cent” while the alle­ga­tions are being investigated.

Ger­man media out­let Der Spiegel ear­li­er report­ed that Schoen­baum had demand­ed for­mal dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings against him after “no response” from the gov­ern­ment after ini­tial allegations.

The reporter said that he does not yet know, “What the Min­istry of Inter­nal Affairs and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions is inves­ti­gat­ing and what the spe­cif­ic charges against me are.”

Berlin is said to be grow­ing con­cerned that its crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture will be tar­get­ed by Russ­ian intel­li­gence agen­cies as it strength­ens its sup­port for Ukraine.

Last week, the Defense Min­istry announced plans to deliv­er four air defense sys­tems to Kyiv. A sin­gle IRIS‑T unit is said to be able to pro­tect an entire city from airstrikes.