BInterior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) wants to recall the President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, according to FAZ information. The newspapers “Handelsblatt” and “Bild” had previously reported on it. Schönbohm has been criticized for possible contacts with Russian secret service circles via the controversial association “Cyber Security Council Germany”. Jan Böhmermann had previously uncovered Schönbohm’s connection to the club in the program “ZDF Magazin Royale”. A spokesman said the Interior Ministry was investigating and examining the matter closely.
Because of the provisions of civil service law, the head of the agency cannot simply be dismissed. The “Bild” reported that after the dismissal, a new job was being sought for Schönbohm as soon as possible and a successor for the BSI. The BSI did not respond to a request from the dpa.
The association “Cyber Security Council Germany” is criticized, among other things, for the membership of the Berlin cyber security 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.
Resentment over close ties to Cyber Security Council
According to dpa information, 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 anniversary have now apparently brought the last straw.
The digital policy spokeswoman for the Left Group in the German Bundestag, Anke Domscheit-Berg, said on Twitter on Saturday 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.
Schönbohm is one of the co-founders of the “Cyber-Sicherheitsrat Deutschland eV”, which has been criticized, among other things, because on certain occasions it acted like a supposed state institution. In 2019, the association’s president, Hans-Wilhelm Dünn, also admitted contacts with Russian secret service agencies to the ARD magazine “Kontraste” and the weekly magazine “Die Zeit”.
According to dpa information, Schönbohm had been suggested several times to distance himself from the “Cyber Security Council Germany eV”. At the beginning of September, however, the head of the authorities appeared at the club to publicly congratulate it on its tenth anniversary.
