Germany Decides To Go On The Offensive In Cyberwar With Russia
- 11.02.2026, 13:24
Berlin will conduct operations abroad.
German authorities have launched an intelligence and cybersecurity reform that will allow the country's intelligence services to counter hackers from hostile states by conducting their own offensive cyber operations, writes Politico. Russia is waging a veritable hybrid war in Europe, with cyberattacks becoming one of its main weapons and Germany one of the main targets of Russian hackers.
The Interior Ministry says two bills are being drafted: one revises the powers of foreign intelligence services, allowing them to conduct cyber operations abroad, and the other gives intelligence services more power to deal with hybrid threats, including retaliatory strikes. Germany will "fight back even abroad, we will crack down on malicious actors and destroy their infrastructure," Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told Süddeutsche Zeitung.
So far, Germany and other European countries have refrained from conducting such operations, fearing they could trigger retaliation and escalate conflict, especially from Russia. But France and the Netherlands have already included the possibility of offensive operations in their cyber strategies.
The first of Berlin's forthcoming bills would require constitutional changes, so it must be supported by two-thirds of parliamentarians in both houses. The second could be approved by a simple majority and would give law enforcement agencies greater powers to implement "active cyber defense," Interior Ministry spokesman Henning Zanetti explained to Rolitico. According to German TV news service Taggesschau, the bill would allow intelligence agencies to respond to a "special situation of national character" with "operational powers if timely assistance from the police or military cannot be obtained or if measures must be taken on the territory of a foreign country."
Zanetti also compares the new capabilities to the preventive actions of regular police:
Cyber defense aims to actively prevent, suppress or at least mitigate attacks, As with police action in similar cases, it is done to eliminate an existing threat, regardless of who it comes from.
Germany has been the victim of some of the most high-profile hacking attacks by Russian intelligence services in recent European history, including the hacking of the national parliament in 2015. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, such attacks as part of Russia's hybrid warfare have become more frequent.
According to an Associated Press analysis, there have been at least 145 sabotage attacks in Europe since 2022 that fit into the picture of a hybrid war Russia has launched against the West. They include 16 major cyberattacks in which Germany and the Netherlands were the main targets (three operations each).
In the case of Germany, these are:
the 2024 attack against the then ruling Social Democratic Party and German arms, aerospace and information technology companies;
the connection of Russian hackers to a German military teleconference when an officer used an unsecured phone line in a Singapore hotel;
the cyberattack on German air traffic control.
Europe was urged late last year by Italian Defense Minister Gvido Crosetto to take active steps in hybrid warfare with Russia. He, in particular, proposed to create a European Center for Countering Hybrid Warfare, a cyber unit of 1,500 people, as well as military units dealing with artificial intelligence and supply chain protection, to attract experts in the fight against disinformation.