According to reports from the Financial Times, the head of German cyber security who reports to the Ministry of the Interior was removed yesterday from his functions with immediate effect by the minister Nancy Faser. The decision after the German media spread the news of the unfortunate coincidence.
The IT manager's links with the organization have not yet been clarified to the investigators "German Cyber Security Council"- GSC extension -, which he co-founded about ten years ago. The investigation reports reveal that one of the organization's members was a company founded by a former KGB agent.
The scandal had a strong media coverage due to the cyber security alarm existing in Germany following Berlin's support for Ukraine. In the last month, the country's railway network has suffered a cyber sabotage that has paralyzed, for a few moments, all railway services in northern Germany.
The Ministry of the Interior has made it known that the accusations leveled against the manager "have undermined the confidence in the neutrality and impartiality of its leadership within the most important German information security agency ".
The senior official has been in the media spotlight ever since a report on the German TV show ZDF Magazine Royale revealed its links with the GCSC.
The investigation involved a Berlin-based cybersecurity company called Protelion which, until recently, was a member of the GCSC.
The company, which was previously called Infotechs, was the branch of a Russian company called OAO Infotecs. According to the research network Network Analytics Policy, OAO Infotecs was founded by a former employee of the KGB, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin had awarded with a medal of honor. Contact Protelion since the FT declined to comment on the matter, as did OAO Infotecs.
The GCSC said last week that it excluded Protelion as a member of the Board, saying its actions were viewed as a blatant "violation of the goals" of the association itself.