BERLIN (HPD) — The head of Germany’s national cybersecurity agency is under scrutiny over reports of links to Russian intelligence, officials said Monday.
Arne Schoenbohm, who heads the BSI agency, co-founded a digital security group a decade ago that brings together experts from public institutions and the private sector. The German press reported that one of its members is a company founded by a former Russian intelligence agent.
“The Home Office takes the matters reported over the weekend seriously and is investigating them thoroughly,” the ministry said in a statement.
There is growing concern in Germany that the country’s critical infrastructure could be targeted by Russia due to Berlin’s support for Ukraine. On Saturday, an apparent act of sabotage forced the German railway company Deutsche Bahn to halt passenger and freight trains in the country’s northwest for nearly three hours.
After the nearly three-hour suspension, Deutsche Bahn said the problem, a “fault in the train’s digital radio system”, had been resolved, but some outages could still be expected. He later stated that the outage was caused by sabotage.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing reported that cables that are “essential for handling rail traffic safely” were deliberately cut in two separate places. He added that federal police were investigating the incident.