German Interior Ministry Seeks Sweeping New Powers for BfV Including Covert Home Entry and State Spyware

Germany's Interior Ministry under Alexander Dobrindt has drafted legislation expanding the BfV's powers to include covert home entry and remote hacking of computers and phones using state spyware 123. The draft also lets the agency delete or alter stored data, intercept or redirect transmissions, interfere with attackers' IT infrastructure, spread deliberately false information against foreign cyber and hybrid threats, and recruit informants as young as 16 123. Surveillance targets could in some cases never be notified 23, and oversight would rest with a new Independent Control Council that merges existing wiretap-approval and data-protection functions and must pre-clear the most intrusive measures, including long-term undercover deployments and home surveillance, though agency leadership can bypass that approval in urgent cases with review occurring only afterward 123. Telecommunications, digital, transport, and financial firms could be compelled under binding secret disclosure orders to assist BfV operations, with noncompliant companies facing fines of up to 1 million euros and on-site inspections 1, and the draft still needs Federal Cabinet approval before reaching the Bundestag, having already drawn opposition criticism 12.