Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt says he wants to arm the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) with new powers to counter hybrid threats. Speaking to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) he clarified his statement from the previous week that his goal is to transform the BfV into a “true intelligence agency with operational authority”.
“The term ‘information service’ has become the norm for the BfV, and it does describe its primary activity-collecting intelligence-yet that alone is insufficient for a modern defensive service” Dobrindt explained. “Therefore, I am pursuing an expansion of the BfV into an actual intelligence service. It should acquire operational capabilities that would, for instance, allow it to take active countermeasures against foreign cyber‑attacks and to disrupt or destroy an attacker’s infrastructure”.
He added that the BfV should also receive “operational powers” in the analog sphere, such as preventing sensitive information from falling into the hands of foreign powers. The federal government is currently coordinating on this issue, Dobrindt said.
Given the growing hybrid threats both domestically and abroad, all security agencies must strengthen their defensive capacities. “We have already established a joint hybrid defence centre” he said. “There we bring together various stakeholders to develop responses to hybrid threats”. The centre will be positioned within the BfV and is modeled on the concept of the Joint Counter‑Terrorism Centre.
