Gastkommentar: Entrümpelt die Regeln und schützt damit die Umspannwerke

Recent attacks on power substations in Jänschwalde and Bergheim highlight the growing focus of hybrid threats on energy and water supply, telecommunications, and public transportation. Protecting critical infrastructure (Kritis) has become one of the central security tasks of our time. In recent years, Brussels and Berlin have introduced numerous provisions to strengthen the security of critical infrastructure.

This includes the European Cybersecurity Directive and the CER Directive, which were implemented in Germany as the Kritis Bund Law. The aim of all these laws is unquestionably correct, but they place too much emphasis on documentation, proof, and legal protection instead of effective security measures, leading primarily to double and multiple regulations in practice.

The problem is further exacerbated by new laws affecting the protection measures of companies, which unfortunately create additional obstacles. The European AI Regulation is particularly relevant, as modern monitoring systems of critical infrastructure locations increasingly contain AI components.