German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday (5) that a high-level military video conference on Ukraine was intercepted by Russia due to an individual error.
One of the participants mistakenly joined the conversation via an unsecured line, but German communications systems were not compromised.
Russia likely intercepted the discussion between senior German Air Force officials by chance, through widespread surveillance, Pistorius added.
The minister presented the initial results of an investigation into the leak, which embarrassed Germany and raised doubts about the security of its intelligence.
Russian media last week published an audio recording of a meeting of German officials held on the Webex platform discussing arms deliveries to Ukraine and a potential attack by Kiev on a bridge in Crimea.
“Our communications systems were not compromised,” Pistorius said. “The reason the Air Force call could, however, be recorded was due to an operational error by one individual.”
The participant called from Singapore, where an air show was taking place. Such an event attracted senior European military officials, becoming a target for Russian security services.
“Therefore, we must assume that access to this conference on Webex was a fluke within a broad and scattered approach.”
The use of Webex for calls up to a certain security level was authorized, he said, noting that it was not off-the-shelf software but specially certified software with servers in the Bundeswehr's computing centers in Germany.
Still, Germany was investigating whether issues were mentioned on the call that should not have been discussed on Webex, he said.
Pistorius said Russia leaked the call in an attempt to create divisions within Germany and between the country and its allies.
In the call, German Air Force chief Ingo Gerhartz discusses with three senior Luftwaffe officials the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far firmly rejected publicly, fueling a public debate.
Asked whether the leak could affect the position of Gerhartz, who was not the one calling from Singapore, Pistorius said that if nothing further emerged from the investigation, “then I'm not going to sacrifice one of my best officers to Putin's games.”
Germany will take technical and organizational measures to ensure such an incident does not happen again, Pistorius said, adding that he spoke on Monday with his counterparts in partner countries who expressed their continued confidence in Germany.
“Everyone knows the danger of these eavesdropping attacks and knows that it is not possible to guarantee 100% protection against them,” he said.
Germany's allies have been reticent in their public reaction to the recording, although some British politicians outside the government have criticized German security measures.
The Kremlin claims the recording shows that the German armed forces were discussing plans to launch attacks on Russian territory, accusations that Germany denies as “absurd”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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