The Federal Government has initiated an amendment to the IT Security Act. She wants to upgrade the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) to a cyber authority with hacker powers. With 799 new posts, the office is to become a key player in the fight against botnets, neglected devices in the Internet of Things and the spread of malware.

According to the government decision, the BSI is authorized to detect security gaps at the interfaces between IT systems and public telecommunications networks using port scans. It should be allowed to use systems and processes for the analysis of malware and attack methods such as honeypots and sinkholes. In order to limit the space of static IP addresses in the port scans, the authorities have to set up a “white list” of usable address ranges and constantly adapt them. This is to ensure that the scanned systems are “regularly in Germany”.

Store twelve months According to the draft law, the BSI will in future be allowed to store and evaluate “log data” including personal user information such as IP addresses that arise during online communication between citizens and federal administrative institutions and parliamentarians. The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) cut down the requirements for this in its most recent draft, for example the requirement that the log data may only be used to ward off dangers emanating from a malware found.

Internal The BSI is allowed to process “logging data” from all authorities in the form of records on the form of use of IT in order to avert threats to federal communications technology. Overall, such widespread Trojans as Emotet as well as complex attacks, often originating from secret services, should be better identified.