Germany announced on Tuesday that cyber-attacks from Iran have been on the rise since 2014.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Berlin is considering laws that would let it respond actively to foreign cyber-attacks, presenting a domestic intelligence agency report showing Iran was the latest power to ramp up hack attacks on German systems.
The agency also reported that the volume of cyber-attacks from China had seemingly dwindled as the number of acquisitions of German high-tech companies by Chinese firms had risen.
The report, released on Tuesday by the domestic intelligence service (BfV), said numbers of cyber-attacks with a likely origin in Iran had increased sharply last year.
In response to the report, which highlighted cyber-attacks by Iran, Russia and China, Seehofer said the agency needed to acquire the power not just to track and clean up cyber-attacks but also to launch counter-measures.
“We will maybe need changes to the law on the question of how to react actively, not just investigating, but also actively (responding),” Seehofer said.
In January, the foreign ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador to reprimand Tehran for spying on individuals and groups with close ties to Israel, calling such acts an unacceptable breach of German law.
The new intelligence report said cyber-attacks believed to be backed by Iran were mainly aimed at the German government, dissidents, human rights organizations, research centers and the aerospace, defense and petrochemical industries.
“The observed cyber campaigns are developing such efficacy that the operations initiated and guided by intelligence agencies to gain information could pose a danger to German companies and research institutions,” the report said.
Russia, China and Iran constituted the biggest cyber and espionage threats to Germany, but other countries such as India and Vietnam, and even some western states, were also active.
