Zeit Online: Security breach gave access to information about Bundeswehr meetings
A cybersecurity breach has allowed access to information about at least six thousand Bundeswehr meetings on the videoconferencing platform Webex, the German website Zeit Online reported on Saturday, two months after leaks of a secret military meeting via the same tool.
During a search conducted by the news site, it was possible to access the name of the person who sends invitations to important meetings of the Bundeswehr via Webex, and other information such as time and date.
“More than six thousand meetings could have been found online,” some classified as secret and dealing with topics such as the long-range Taurus missiles claimed by Ukraine or the “digital battlefield,” the website said.
In addition, the virtual meeting rooms for the 248,000 Bundeswehr members were easy to recognize, thanks to a weak electronic design that lacked even password protection.
Among other things, it found the digital meeting room of German Air Force commander Ingo Gerhartz.
The latter’s name was mentioned in March, when a secret conversation was leaked between high-ranking Bundeswehr officers, as Gerhartz was among military personnel who allegedly did not use the required codeline on Webex.
Russian intelligence services’ interception of the conversation caused a scandal in Germany, putting the country in an embarrassing position vis-à-vis its allies.
According to Zeit Online, the Bundeswehr only learned of the security breach after questions from journalists.
A Bundeswehr spokesman confirmed that there was a vulnerability in the army’s Webex websites, but once it was noticed, it was corrected within 24 hours.
