IT disruptions in the Bundeswehr: CDU politicians demand consequences

After days of IT disruptions in the Bundeswehr, CDU security politicians are calling for consequences. Their warnings reach far beyond the affected reservists.

Berlin. The chairman of the intelligence control committee in the Bundestag, Marc Henrichmann, reacted with alarm to the IT disruptions in the Bundeswehr. “In an emergency, a prolonged IT failure and the loss of reservist databases would be a catastrophe,” Henrichmann told the Handelsblatt. His CDU parliamentary group colleague Roderich Kiesewetter is concerned about the troops' leadership and command abilities because of the incident.

According to information from the Handelsblatt, a number of reservists were affected by problems at the federal IT service provider BWI for at least a week. According to BWI itself, there were a maximum of 900. The service provider attributes the restrictions to an update and expressly rules out any loss of data.

Henrichmann said the incident illustrates how important reliable IT is for the Bundeswehr. “Especially when it comes to the security of our country, critical IT systems must always function.”

The CDU politician is pushing for consequences. “We need hardened and fail-safe systems in order to be able to restore data and critical processes in the force as quickly as possible,” he said. The fact that the IT systems were not available to reservists for several days shows: “There is still a lot of catching up to do here.”

Kiesewetter warned of the consequences for the military's ability to act. “The incident shows that we are not yet sufficiently operational and capable of defending ourselves if central elements of the leadership and command capabilities do not function or are vulnerable to disruptions or cyber attacks,” the security politician told the Handelsblatt. Kiesewetter pointed out that reservists were particularly important for the functioning of the so-called Operational Plan Germany (O-Plan).

The Bundeswehr's Territorial Command presented the plan for Germany's national defense in spring 2024 - for the first time since the end of the Cold War. The aim is also to improve networking with security authorities, disaster relief agencies and industrial companies. The plan, which also provides for tasks for the federal states, determines how joint action should be taken in the event of tension and defense.

In addition to personnel and equipment, this requires secure communication structures, emphasized Kiesewetter. With regard to the current IT disruption, he added: “We should analyze the causes of the breakdown and, where necessary, introduce improvements.”

The IT problem is “symptomatic of the lack of modern structures in procurement, innovation and adaptation processes,” added Kiesewetter. This is also visible in the “serious problems with digital radio or the implementation of modern requirements in artificial intelligence and digitalization”.

The Ministry of Defense does not see any serious consequences from the IT breakdown. “The operational readiness of the Bundeswehr is not at risk,” a spokesman told Handelsblatt. The disruptions to “individual IT systems” are known. Their causes and effects were processed through the planned processes and reporting channels. The spokesman ruled out a cyber attack. There were “no data leaks or third-party access”. The reason is “operational reasons”.

The ministry also pointed out that the Bundeswehr could resort to emergency procedures in the event of IT restrictions. These would “ensure the Bundeswehr’s ability to act without restrictions,” said the spokesman. Since an end to the disruption is foreseeable, emergency procedures are currently being avoided.

A BWI spokesman told Handelsblatt that no data had been deleted. “The impairments were only caused by limited data access.” There can be no question of a “severe impairment”. “There were performance issues as a result of an update – not a crash,” the spokesperson said. These would have led to “individual user sessions being aborted, but not to systemic failures”.

The BWI spokesman assured that the problem has now been technically resolved. For those affected, he promised an early return to normal operations: “Everything should be working perfectly again for the users shortly.”