Federal Office for Information Security

Federal Office for Information Security

The Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (abbreviated BSI - in English: Federal Office for Information Security) is the German government agency in charge of managing computer and communication security for the German government. Its areas of expertise and responsibility include the security of computer applications, critical infrastructure protection, Internet security, cryptography, counter eavesdropping, certification of security products and the accreditation of security test laboratories. It is located in Bonn and has over 400 employees. Its current president is Dr. Udo Helmbrecht.

BSI's predecessor was the cryptographic department of Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND). BSI still designs cryptographic algorithms such as the Libelle cipher.

imilar Agencies

The BSI has a similar role as the
* NSA (United States)
* CESG (United Kingdom)

Contrary to those organizations, the BSI seems to be separate from Germany's signals intelligence, which ispart of the military and the foreign intelligence service (BND). However, it is unknown whether there isstill some form of informal cooperation between the BSI and the BND.

History

According to various [http://www.aci.net/Kalliste/speccoll.htm news reports] , German signals intelligenceconspired with the US' NSA to weaken Swiss cryptographic equipment made by Crypto AG. This allegedly allowed western intelligence to read the secret communications of countries like Libyaand Iran.

External links

* [http://www.bsi.bund.de/ BSI web site]
* [http://www.bsi.bund.de/english/publications/ English BSI publications]


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