German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced the first official results of an investigation into the leak of secret communications between German officers to Russia, and it turned out that the Russians did not intercept anything. He stated that communication systems were not hacked.
According to him, the conversation was recorded due to “implementation errors” and because “Not all participants followed the prescribed safe conversation procedure.” The leak occurred through a senior Bundeswehr officer based in Singapore, who logged into the system through an open connection.
The first results of the scandal investigation
According to Pistorius, a conversation between senior Bundeswehr officers about a cruise missile “Taurus” could have been recorded by Russian intelligence only because “errors in the application.” “Webex lines, which the Bundeswehr uses in a secure version for communication, have not been hacked,” – he said.
One of the participants was attending the conference from Singapore and was likely using either an unsecured mobile phone or an unsecured hotel WiFi line. The Minister suggests that ““This was a coincidence and not a targeted attack by a Russian spy.”
At the same time, a conference of European military officials was held in Singapore. Therefore, the conversation between Bundeswehr officers was “blow”, Pistorius said. He guessed it was “a random hit within a broad, nuanced approach.”
There are no consequences for personnel yet
However, the investigation into the incident has not yet been completed. During the conversation, scenarios for the operation of the German Taurus cruise missile were discussed, as well as the question of whether it would be delivered to Ukraine. The recording also says that there is no political permission yet for the supply of cruise missiles that Kyiv requested.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) justified his refusal by the fact that Germany in this case could be drawn into war. For this, he was sharply criticized both within his coalition and from the opposition.
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