The German Defense Ministry has been mocked by the media and criticized by allies for its poor security practices, after a press statement on a leaked military audio was protected by the password ‘1234’.
The statement, made by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Sunday, was posted in audio format on the ministry’s website on Monday. Under a link to a cloud storage service hosting the file, the ministry informed visitors that they could access the recording by entering the password ‘1234’.
The password was quickly discovered by journalists and shared on social media, sparking ridicule and disbelief. “This is extremely embarrassing for the defense ministry and raises serious questions about their competence and credibility,” said one reporter from the German newspaper Die Welt.
The press statement was meant to address the leak of a highly sensitive audio that revealed a top-level discussion on sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine, training Ukrainian officials to use them, and targeting the bridge that links the Crimea peninsula with mainland Russia.
The audio, which was confirmed as authentic by the German government, was leaked on Russia’s state broadcaster RT on Friday. The leak has been described by Pistorius as a “hybrid disinformation attack” by Russia, and has triggered an investigation by the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD).
The leak has also exposed the rift within the governing three-way coalition over the issue of providing military assistance to Ukraine, which is facing Russian aggression in the eastern Donbass region. While the Social Democrats and the Greens support the delivery of long-range missiles to Ukraine, the Christian Democrats are opposed to it.
The leak has also drawn sharp criticism from international allies, who have questioned Germany’s security and reliability. Former UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the Times newspaper that the leak showed Germany was “pretty penetrated” by Russian intelligence, and that it demonstrated they were “neither secure nor reliable”.
The incident has also raised concerns about how German government communications are secured online, and whether they are vulnerable to hacking or eavesdropping. Some experts have suggested that the audio was obtained through a cybersecurity vulnerability, wiretapping, or a more traditional type of spying.
