Germany's cabinet is set to approve a roughly 700-page intelligence reform bill on Wednesday that would grant the country's spy agencies broad new powers to conduct active cyber defence and sabotage operations abroad. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt previewed the legislation, which would allow the Federal Intelligence Service to neutralise foreign IT systems during ongoing cyber attacks and carry out sabotage overseas in times of tension or defence. Agents would also be permitted to manipulate data, disrupt terrorist operations and influence technical systems.
The government cites a recent bomb-laden drone discovery at Leipzig/Halle airport as evidence of growing hybrid threats. The bill also addresses a Constitutional Court deadline to revise domestic-foreign telecommunications surveillance rules by year-end and would cap extremist-group surveillance at five years.
BND staff would no longer need explicit approval to carry weapons abroad. Federal data protection commissioner Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider criticised the removal of her oversight authority over the BND, while Green party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz called the reform necessary but said the plans overshoot their mark.