Gastkommentar: Wir müssen die deutsche Wissenschaft besser schützen
Der Fall Cispa zeigt eine offene Flanke. Bund und Länder sollten verbindliche Regeln für Kooperationen mit Staaten wie China knüpfen, fordert der Bundestagsabgeordnete Florian Müller.
A growing concern has been circulating for over three months, extending well beyond the scientific community: sensitive knowledge from a German research institution may have been disseminated to a state with a notable security risk – in this case, China. The debate was sparked by a June 2026 report in the Handelsblatt. The focus lies on Cispa in Saarbrücken, a world-leading research center for cybersecurity.
Remarkably, many employees are reportedly from China, some with potential ties to military-affiliated universities. Research Minister Dorothee Bär promptly commissioned an independent investigation into the case. The final report indicates that the leakage of security-relevant insights was always possible, and a sufficiently robust system of research security was lacking.
It is alarming that 18 out of 19 members in an IT security and AI research group at Cispa come from a state with a special security risk, where every citizen is obligated to cooperate with the intelligence agency. The handling of third-party states is also troubling. Recently, the president of an extramural German research institution expressed effusive praise for China's technological progress and impressive research infrastructure in the "South China Morning Post," a state without any acknowledgement of its darker side.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
