Overview
- Intelligence services have raised internal threat awareness and increased protective measures, with armed guards patrolling the BND headquarters since early this year to deter uninvited visitors.
- Security reports document a sharp uptick in suspicious activity near BND and BfV sites, including drone overflights, repeated sightings of suspicious cars, staff being followed, and an attempted fence breach at the training complex adjacent to the BND campus.
- An episode last spring in which several foreign men repeatedly appeared at the BND entrance helped prompt a higher internal threat level after police reviewed surveillance footage and identified some individuals tied to the Chechen community.
- Legal pressures are mounting: the former BND official Carsten L. is on trial at the Kammergericht for allegedly selling secrets to Russia’s FSB while the Bundesverwaltungsgericht recently cleared a long‑serving employee and criticized the BND’s internal investigative procedures.
- The government is drafting a new BND law to expand agency self‑protection, notably allowing the service to neutralise drones without first calling police, a shift that raises questions about oversight, investment in regional outposts, and staff morale.