Routledge Companion to Global Cyber-Security Strategy

6GERMANY’S CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY

Confronting future challenges

Scott N. Romaniuk and Michael Claus

Introduction

Prior to 2005, cybersecurity had not been viewed as a national security issue. That changed in 2005, when Udo Helmbrecht, then president of Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, BSI), penned a report in which he reasoned that Germany needed to seriously consider integrating cyber security into the state’s national security calculus, thereby preparing for imminent threats in the cyber realm. The Bundestag heeded Helmbrecht’s call for the state to assume a stronger position on the issue, incorporating cyber threats into its national security strategy (Weißbuch) with ...