The security authorities are preparing for cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns in connection with the federal election.

The threats are greater than in the past, said Arne Schönbohm, President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), on Tuesday.

He cited advancing digitization as the reason for this.

More and more people are using the Internet to find out more, and online communication has become even more important during the pandemic.

It can be assumed that attempts at manipulation, as in the American presidential election campaign, "also in Germany as the most economically powerful power in Europe" are attractive to attackers.

Helene Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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      Schönbohm described the dangerous situation as "complex".

      The BSI President warned of malfunctions and attempts at sabotage by Trojan programs.

      The attack on Microsoft's Exchange server is also a persistent problem.

      In Germany there are 65,000 such servers, 4000 are still not "patched", so cybercriminals can attack.

      Hackers could also try to take over politicians' accounts and provide false information there or access, falsify and publish sensitive data.

      The BSI is responsible for the security of the government network, but not for the protection of parliamentarians.

      His authority supports the parties represented in the Bundestag in taking protective measures themselves, said Schönbohm.

      He was “impressed” by the high level of acceptance of these measures.

      Myths about postal voting

      Attacks controlled from abroad, so-called hybrid threats, are particularly threatening. They can occur both in the form of a classic hacker attack and in the form of disinformation campaigns. American services assume that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. This could also threaten in Germany. Schönbohm did not want to say anything concrete about this in the joint press conference with Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel. “We at the BSI are the goalkeeper,” it doesn't matter whether the shot comes from Bayern Munich or VfL Bochum, as long as it doesn't go into the goal. The BSI is in close contact with the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which coordinates the work of the security authorities on this topic. You are also in contact with representatives of the platforms, said Schönbohm,he had the cell phone numbers of the respective security chiefs.

      Thiel pointed out that it was also about sowing doubts about the integrity of the ballot. He cited the myths about postal voting as an example. "There have been postal votes since 1957. Since 1957, we have had no starting point to suggest that the elections as a whole have become more susceptible to manipulation." It is also not true that the ballot boxes in which postal votes end up could be opened. Such false information is corrected by his authority, and various measures are taken to further increase the security of postal voting. Thiel assumes that even more people than in the past will make use of this opportunity in autumn.

      There is a security concept on several levels for election day itself. According to Thiel, the data for the preliminary final result would be transmitted to the federal returning officer via the network of authorities. But one also prepares for attacks, then someone would have to drive to Berlin by car if necessary. Thiel was able to announce at least one piece of good news: The official final result is hacker-proof because it works without computer help.