Status: 09.10.2022 10:38 p.m
The head of the Federal Office for Information Security, Schönbohm, has been criticized for his affiliation with an association that is said to have contacts with the Russian secret service. Now he is about to lose his job.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser intends to dismiss the President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, shortly. That experienced that ARD Capital Studio from government circles – the “Handelsblatt” and “Bild” had previously reported.
Schönbohm has been criticized for possible contacts with Russian secret service circles via the controversial “Cyber Security Council Germany” association. Schönbohm’s connection had previously been discussed by Jan Böhmermann in the “ZDF Magazin Royale” program.
The BSI boss was the founding president of the association. This is criticized, among other things, because of the membership of the Berlin cybersecurity company Protelion. The company operated under the name Infotecs GmbH until the end of March. This is a subsidiary of the Russian cybersecurity company OAOInfotecs, which, according to information from the research network “Policy Network Analytics”, was founded by a former employee of the Russian intelligence service KGB.
The fact that the association acted like a supposed state institution on certain occasions was also criticized. About that – and about the contacts to Russian secret service offices ARD-Magazine contrasts already reported in 2019.
No dismissal possible
Because of the provisions of civil service law, Faeser cannot simply fire Schönbohm – she has to find a new position for the head of the agency. At the same time, a successor will be sought as soon as possible, it said. A joint public appointment for Faeser and Schönbohm was originally scheduled for Thursday: the presentation of the new BSI management report. The presentation should now not take place as planned.
According to information from the dpa news agency, there has long been displeasure in the Ministry of the Interior about Schönbohm’s role in and his dealings with the Cyber Security Council. The recent allegations and Schönbohm’s visit to the club’s tenth anniversary have apparently brought the last straw.
The digital policy spokeswoman for the left-wing faction in the German Bundestag, Anke Domscheit-Berg, explained on Twitter that she had requested that the digital committee deal with the topic next Wednesday. What Jan Böhmermann made public about connections between Russian intelligence services, “a dubious cyber security association, its members and the BSI” is incomprehensible.