Germany ill-prepared for cyberattacks: IT security head

Germany is ill-prepared to ward off large-scale cyberattacks, the head of the federal agency for information security (BSI) said in remarks published on Sunday.

There was no joint overall assessment of the threat and no structures to coordinate a response.

Speaking to Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper, Claudia Plattner said the federal government and the 16 states needed to coordinate. "We need this urgently. We cannot phone each other 16 times to find out what is currently happening where," she said.

"What do we do, if for example the lights go out in Hamburg and Munich at the same time because of a cyberattack, which in the worst case arises out of geopolitical tension?" she queried.

Urgent action would be needed to deal with the crisis, and this meant that a joint situation report had to be available. Crisis units would have to be called in, and the federal government and the states would have to join forces, she said.

"We are not prepared for all of this today. This coordination with each other has not been practised. The constitution prohibits a joint database," Plattner said.

The BSI head called for cybersecurity to be given priority, "before a major event occurs and for example the cash machines go down."

Looking ahead to three state elections in September, Plattner said the BSI was focusing on disinformation.

"For example, the accounts of politicians standing for election are being hacked. The hackers are trying to access information, aiming to harm the reputations of people or the state concerned by publishing it," she said.

The BSI was attempting to prevent hacking by technical means. "We are training those involved and giving them tips on what to do when something happens and how they can control things," she said. The BSI was working to take down fake profiles quickly, she added.

And she called on the general public "not to believe everything that gets dished up to you."