The Union wants citizens, businesses and government to better protect against the growing threat of cyber attacks with a transnational strategy for more Internet security.
The heads of the members of the Bundestag, the European Parliament and the state parliaments demand a „contingency plan“ in a paper available to the German press agency in Berlin in order to be able to respond quickly to the outflow of sensitive data, digital industrial espionage or sabotage » , The draft, which is due to be decided this Monday, also calls for tougher penalties for cybercriminals.
Only in December had a hacker under the pseudonym „0rbit“ published on Twitter partly explosive data from politicians, journalists, rappers, YouTube stars and other celebrities. A pupil from the Hessian Homberg (Ohm) has confessed the act.
The draft Monday-end two-day conference of CDU and CSU party leaders in Brussels calls for nationwide minimum legal standards for the security of information technology equipment. This is supposed to apply to end user devices such as mobile phones and laptops. Providers of online services and manufacturers of devices connected to the Internet should tailor their offerings „so that strong enough passwords have to be chosen by users and changed regularly“.
The Union also demands new offenses, such as the operation of criminal infrastructures. In addition, the criminal law should be supplemented with criminal offenses in the field of cybercrime. „Deterrence and high pressure of persecution can be achieved to protect everyone,“ says the draft. In all countries, according to the wishes of the parliamentary group leaders of the CDU and CSU, there should be central contact points for the economy. The focus should be on the direct exchange of information and on-the-spot help.
Federal and state authorities should be „financially, technically, in terms of personnel and infrastructures designed so that cyber attacks detected as quickly as possible, the districts warned and identified vulnerabilities as soon as possible can be eliminated immediately“. The federal government and the states should do cross-border regular crisis management exercises.
The chairman of the parliamentary group, Thuringia’s CDU regional and political group leader Mike Mohring, told dpa that the huge opportunities that digitization poses for everyone and the economy pose enormous risks. This is exposed to anyone who moves in the network. „Data security is lagging far behind in development,“ said Mohring. „It has to be done quickly.“
