Overview
- The federal cabinet is set to approve a more than 700‑page intelligence package on Wednesday that the government says will modernize German services and give them limited authority to act during foreign cyberattacks.
- The bill explicitly permits narrowly defined offensive measures — commonly called 'hackbacks' — allowing the BND to interfere with foreign IT systems during active attacks, and it expands online searches, device intrusions and AI analysis of large datasets.
- Oversight will be concentrated in an upgraded Unabhängiger Kontrollrat that gains prior‑approval powers and parts of data‑protection supervision now held by the federal data protection officer, shifting control from multiple bodies to a judicially dominated body.
- Opposition parties, the federal data protection officer and civil‑liberties groups warn the changes weaken the historic separation between intelligence and policing, increase secretive powers over personal data, and will likely prompt constitutional legal challenges.
- If enacted, the reform could speed operational responses to cyber and sabotage threats but also risk public trust and court clashes; lawmakers and courts will now decide how to balance faster defence, legal limits and citizen privacy.