Germany's spy chief, Bruno Kahl, has warned that state-sponsored hacking alongside Russia could disrupt next year's German elections, with disinformation campaigns and hacked government emails capable of undermining the democratic process.
Kahl, president of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), added that the whole of Europe was at the center of the disruption but for now the danger lay beyond Germany.
In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday (November 30), Kahl said that "his agency knows that cyberattacks have no other purpose than to cause political insecurity.".
"The perpetrators are interested in delegitimizing the democratic process, regardless of who ends up helping," Kahl said, adding that "the attacks may come from Russia where, as he argued, hacking is at least a tolerable or even desirable situation.".
Kahl claimed they have already seen targeted email spoofing campaigns organized by foreign attackers. The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV told Reuters earlier in November that authorities were concerned that Russia could attempt to interfere in Germany’s national elections through the use of disinformation.
Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also warned that social bots could manipulate public opinion by spreading fake news.
In the wake of the suspected cyber attack on Deutsche Telekom on Monday (November 29), Merkel said "such cyber attacks are now part of everyday life and we must learn to deal with them.".
During the US as well, intelligence officials believed that votes were being manipulated by Russian authorities by hacking into Democratic National Committee emails, something that Russian officials denied.
