Germany is a country of security – at least that was the impression one had in the past. In times of major conflicts, not just with Russia, inflation and the energy crisis, more and more leaks and cracks are becoming apparent in our infrastructure. The sabotage of the railway cables in Berlin and Herne in October and the attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines show that the infrastructure is not as well protected as it should be. The critical infrastructure is particularly at risk. Just more security personnel? “stern” reporter Rolf-Herbert Peters says in the 391st episode of the podcast “important today”: “Anyone who thinks that you can do magic somehow and only have to use as much money or staff as possible so that our infrastructure is suddenly safe is deceiving I believe myself.”
The complicated and problematic thing is that the largest share of infrastructure, such as in the area of telecommunications and energy supply, is 80 percent in the hands of private companies. In an interview with “Today Important” host Michel Abdollahi, Rolf-Herbert Peters says: “These 80 percent must somehow be persuaded to provide the highest possible level of protection so that our country is safe.”
Of course, such companies decide for themselves how they protect themselves from attacks from outside, from natural disasters, from human error and the like”. And this protection of the companies must be established. “The state can actually only intervene directly, with its own infrastructures.” , explains Peters.
31 hours without electricity – Thousands of residents of the Berlin district of Köpenick had to struggle with this blackout about three years ago. The reason for the power failure was an excavator that accidentally severed two main power cables. What would happen if the population in Germany were confronted with such a blackout due to the current energy crisis. There are such scenarios that the state calculates in detail. “stern” reporter Rolf-Herbert Peters says: “I think, for example, Germany, as we know, is one of the best positioned in terms of energy security. In recent years, despite the energy transition, we have increasingly integrated renewable energies, one of the world’s most stable networks. We have the fewest power outages.”
However, there are some gaps in the telecommunications networks. “At Telekom alone there are seven million attempts every day to get into the computer network,” says Rolf-Herbert Peters about network security.
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