Helmholtz Center Cispa and founding director Michael Backes are separating

Berlin. The Helmholtz Center for Information Security Cispa and its founding director Michael Backes are separating. Both sides had “mutually agreed” on this, the shareholders Federal Government and Saarland announced on Thursday. They expressly referred to the results of a special audit.

The special audit was initiated after reports in the Handelsblatt about the research center's explosive China connections. Cispa had worked with Chinese scientists from military-related universities who are on US sanctions lists. The federal government and Saarland then appointed the auditing firm KPMG as a special auditor. Among other things, it should clarify whether security-relevant research results could have reached foreign bodies.

The first results from the around 400-page report were announced on Wednesday. Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU) said in the Bundestag Research Committee that Cispa had, figuratively speaking, “the door wide open” when it came to research security.

According to the auditors' findings, an outflow of safety-relevant research results was technically possible. Whether data was actually leaked could neither be confirmed nor ruled out due to the available data. The auditors also found significant deficits in the protection of business secrets and in the selection of employees and cooperation partners.

The criticism also affected the management and Backes personally. According to Bär, the management did not adequately fulfill its management tasks in export control and research security and bears organizational responsibility for the identified risks. Backes also refused to cooperate fully with the special auditor from the start, contrary to a request from the shareholders' meeting. He was released from duty during the investigation.

In their statement on the separation from Backes, the federal government and Saarland did not go into any further detail about these allegations. Both sides had “different ideas about how the future of the internationally positioned research center should be shaped,” it simply said.

The Saarbrücken-based institution, which is part of the Helmholtz Association, is one of the leading European centers for cybersecurity research. Scientists there conduct research on, among other things, artificial intelligence, the security of computer systems and protection against cyber attacks. Hundreds of millions of euros are flowing into the expansion of the research location.

There are also changes in the supervisory board. The previous chairman of the control committee, Karl-Eugen Huthmacher, also has to go. The Ministry of Research wants to assume representation on the Cispa supervisory board again in the future.

When asked by the Handelsblatt, the Helmholtz Association explained that it could not comment on the results of the report, which was kept under wraps. However, the community ramped up research security activities “long before the first allegations became known”.

“We will consistently continue on this path with the centers,” explained a spokesman. At the same time, the community wants to hold on to Cispa and its scientists. “Their excellent research in the field of cybersecurity is more important than ever for our society and the security of Germany.”