The so-called DSN Control Committee will now become active in the Ott espionage case. As already announced during the meeting of the National Security Council on April 9, the SPÖ will submit a corresponding request to the Permanent Subcommittee on Internal Affairs (“Intelligence Committee”) this week. According to the SPÖ, the NEOS are also on board, on whose votes the SPÖ depends and who had already expressed their approval on April 9.
SPÖ security spokesman Reinhold Einwallner had already stated at the National Security Council meeting that he wanted the DSN Control Committee to be involved “to scrutinize the incidents and what was going on in the BVT and DSN.” The committee was established at the end of 2023 following the BVT scandal and includes lawyer Ingeborg Zerbes.
Secret services must be investigated
The request asks for an investigation into the resilience of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN). Einwallner and his colleagues especially want to know whether the reform that transformed the former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Combating of Terrorism (BVT) into a DSN could provide protection against data “siphoning.” As is known, the reason for the reform adopted in the National Council in July 2021 was the attack on the BVT on February 28, 2018, led by former Minister of the Interior Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), during which emergency services marched into the building in Vienna. -Landstrasse. As a result, the BVT no longer made the news and faced a lot of (international) criticism, making a restart inevitable.
The MPs also want to know, among other things, how resilient the DSN is to internal espionage networks, what the security requirements for internal processes look like (such as database queries) and whether these requirements have been improved as a result of the DSN reform. Questions also arise about access restrictions and monitoring the behavior of officials. It is also necessary to clarify what the DSN’s counterintelligence capabilities are and whether security measures are also in place in the respective state offices for State Security and Counter-Extremism (LSE).
“Safety gap of unimaginable proportions”
The reason for the test request is that “due to the FPÖ spy scandal at the ÖVP Ministry of the Interior” it is necessary to check how resilient the DSN is compared to the BVT, especially against infiltration by spy networks. The request points out that mobile phone data, files, personal data and SINA laptops have been lost, representing a “security gap of unprecedented proportions” – for the state, individuals and also international organizations and other states.
It also points to a “huge security gap” in accessing the EKIS (Electronic Criminal Police Information System) database, which has become apparent. It is important to clarify whether this still exists. In this regard, the MPs point out that “hundreds of private data sets, contact addresses, etc. were spied on – and that is why, among others, the Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who had investigated the poison attacks on Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny and was executed at the end of 2022 was placed on the wanted list of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and had to leave his adopted home country of Austria for security reasons.
“Don’t wait until after the elections”
Einwallner said in a statement to the APA that his group would “provide clarification from day one.” “We will not wait until after the elections with a U-committee, as the FPÖ would like. The DSN must be equipped against such spy networks.” The request is to check “whether that is the case”. “This is the responsibility for Austria’s security policy, and not the shifting of responsibility from the FPÖ and ÖVP,” said the SPÖ MP.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
