“We were all alone”
The attack began on Sunday 12 June 2022 at 4 a.m. Entega's alarm systems in confederate Hesse reported unauthorized access to the company's computers. Hackers have stolen over 600 GB of data from the company. The attack of the Russian blackmail group “Black Cat” caught the company from Darmstadt completely unprepared.
IT personnel who rushed to their server area initially faced closed doors: digital locks were blocked by attackers. “We had to break down the windows and doors to get inside at all,” said Entega Marie-Luise Wolff, CEO at the yearly conference of the Association of Municipal Enterprises in Berlin.
The attackers intercepted addresses, consumption and bank records. The company, which has 800,000 customers throughout Germany, 2200 employees and a turnover of EUR 4 billion (PLN 16 billion 700 million), has been paralyzed for respective days: "No electricity, no payment transactions, no communication," says Wolff. “We sat there with pens and drew plans on paper,” he says. The fact that hackers were incapable to access the control of the power plant was the only ray of hope in these dark hours.
Wolff recalls his sense of powerlessness: “We were all alone — nobody was there. After 3 weeks, we received our first e-mails from the national authorities, he says. That should change quickly. The threat situation in Europe has become highly alarming after a series of attacks, specified as energy and ICT cables. safety circles are convinced that Russia is frequently behind these attacks.
Flixbus to the front
At the VKU Congress, Sinan Selen, Deputy Head of the national Constitution Protection Office (civil counterintelligence services), rejected the frequently quoted message that Germany "is not yet at war but is no longer in peace". “We are at a point where we can no longer talk about hybrid threat — in fact we are already under attack,” he said.
The Bundeswehr so wants to incorporate the ideas of the Green Paper "Civil-military Cooperation 4.0", which has just been developed by leading military and safety politicians, into the fresh "Germany's Operational Plan". Suppliers of electricity, gas and water specified as Entega are to become ‘resistant’, i.e. ready to defend themselves. In turn, private companies and emergency services are to supply Bundeswehra with support in the literal sense of the word: due to the fact that without their ability nothing would work.
High-ranking Bundeswehr planners study on the challenges: As NATO's logistics hub, Germany is tasked with transporting any 800,000 allies to the east flank of the alliance's territory in the event of a conflict — including return transport and care over 1,000 wounded soldiers daily.
Without airlines, railways, freight forwarding companies, transport companies, hospitals and private medical and safety services, nothing would work: after the Bundeswehr was truncated to the bone in 2008, mobility and logistics were practically only designed to supply national locations. Flixbus to the front? It won't work without private service providers.
HENNING KASSER / PAPDeputy Chiefs of the national Constitution Protection Office Sinan Selen (S) and Silke Willems (L) and German Home Minister Nancy Faeser (P) at a press conference on the current safety situation, Cologne, Germany, 12 August 2024.
‘Operationsplan Deutschland’
Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank, Commander of the Bundeswehr Operations Command, is already seeking cooperation with companies. "Operationsplan Deutschland" aims to "maximise the possibilities of civilian support to relieve the Bundeswehr in a targeted manner," he said. He called on representatives of more than 1500 German municipal companies to express their ‘needs’ — they would be included in the ‘Operational Plan Germany’.
The first reactions emerged: the heads of public utility companies Westenergie and Rheinenergie, Katherina Reiche and Andreas Feicht, published a paper calling for their sector to "increase investment in reserve building" and "development and expansion of national energy sources". Suppliers of electricity, gas and water should "always have excess materials and staff". A "fixed fuel reserve" for key infrastructure companies should be established.
Energy workers who are besides active as reservists or volunteers, for example in the Red Cross, should be classified as ‘necessary’, request authors. "Without unchangeable and resilient energy infrastructure and supply, the economy, defence and public life in Germany are vulnerable", they write.
Revision of rules
After years of investment by the economy in just-in-time processes to minimize costly storage, now the situation is to be reversed: stockpiling to guarantee safety. It is inactive unclear whether companies will bear the costs themselves, as in the case of the insurance policy, or whether they will anticipate state subsidies.
President Lufthansa Carsten Spohr declared his willingness to aid the air force: the Bundeswehr would not be able to carry out complex maintenance work of helicopters, drones and aircraft at the current level of vertical integration," he said. You could besides train more pilots. Deutsche Bahn concluded ‘reserve agreements’ with the Bundeswehr to supply freight trains for the transport of dense equipment.
Private companies in Germany are legally obliged to store oil and natural gas. The national Agriculture and Food Authority (BLE) besides stores hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rice, grain and condensed milk in 150 warehouses. However, for now there are no further retention agreements of strategical importance.
However, according to chemical firm Alzchem, it would make sense to "consider state support or the safety of certain products". For example, it is the only maker that produces nitrogen fertilizer in an electrochemical process alternatively than from natural gas or oil. In the light of sanctions against Russia, this could become crucial "to warrant the food safety of the European population".
