Germany approves expanded hacking and disruption powers for intelligence agencies
Germany's parliament has approved new powers for the country's intelligence agencies, allowing them to hack and disrupt adversaries under specified conditions. The legislation was passed by the Bundestag on Friday as the government seeks to strengthen its response to espionage and cyberattacks. The move expands the operational role of both the foreign intelligence service, the BND, and the domestic security agency, the BfV.
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Lawmakers approved the bill by 308 votes to 190, with 71 abstentions. The governing Christian Democrats and Social Democrats backed the reform, while the far-right Alternative for Germany and the Left Party opposed it. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the measure as a "reform of the century" and said Germany needed stronger intelligence services to confront terrorism and hostile foreign operations.
Under the new framework, the BfV will be able to take technical measures against serious threats, including deleting stolen information from an attacker's server. The BND will gain expanded powers to intervene against threats abroad, including disrupting servers used by state-backed hackers. The government says the reform closes a gap in the security system, where agencies could identify a threat but sometimes lacked the authority to act.
The legislation comes months after a thwarted incident at Leipzig-Halle airport that Berlin linked to Russia. German authorities said they found an explosive-laden drone near a cargo plane belonging to the Ukrainian firm Antonov Airlines in August, and later accused Russia of attempting an attack at the state-owned facility. Russia denied involvement, but the dispute led to diplomatic retaliation, including the closure of the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, followed by Moscow ordering the closure of a German consulate in St Petersburg and the Goethe-Institut.
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The reform is significant because it marks a broader shift in how Germany wants its intelligence agencies to respond to hybrid threats. Rather than limiting them mainly to collecting and analysing information, the new law gives them a more active role in disrupting hostile activity. That places Germany among European states seeking to adapt their security tools to cyber operations, espionage and state-backed interference.
What remains unclear is how often the new powers will be used and how they will be overseen in practice. The legislation sets out conditions for intervention, but the operational details have not been fully described in the supplied material. The next focus will be on implementation by the BND and BfV, and on whether the new framework changes Germany's response to future cyber or espionage threats.
