German cabinet approves sweeping intelligence reform granting spy agencies hacking and sabotage powers

Cabinet greenlights 700-page overhaul

Germany's cabinet voted on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, to approve a 700-page draft bill granting the BND foreign intelligence service and the BfV domestic security service broad new operational powers. The measures would allow both agencies to access digital communications, collect data, hack into IT systems, manipulate or delete data, and carry out active operations to thwart attacks. In a state of tension or military defense, the BND could conduct sabotage abroad. The BfV would additionally be empowered to enter homes without judicial authorization, a power the police does not possess without court approval, according to Deutsche Welle. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the reform would incorporate artificial intelligence tools and described it as transforming the agencies into genuine secret services.

Drivers: hybrid threats and the Leipzig drone

Nina Warken, head of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Chancellery, said Germany faced a real, very acute danger from hybrid attacks by foreign powers and could no longer rely on allied intelligence services for its security. The reform comes days after a drone loaded with explosives was discovered at Leipzig airport in eastern Germany. The federal prosecutor is investigating; Russia is discussed as a possible perpetrator, with media citing US intelligence information. Unidentified surveillance drones have been regularly spotted above military bases and other sites. Dobrindt has repeatedly pointed to growing cases of espionage, sabotage, and the risk of attacks in Germany and across Europe.

A paradigm shift for German intelligence

Since their creation after World War II, Germany's intelligence services have had more circumscribed powers than counterparts such as the CIA, Mossad, MI6, or French services, operating primarily as information gatherers. The reform would shift their mandate from observe, analyze, report to, in certain cases, observe, analyze, and intervene. Martin Jäger, head of the BND, told Der Spiegel that Germany must demonstrate comparable capabilities so adversaries feel the consequences. The legislation also streamlines oversight under a single supervisor for the BND and introduces new rules to prevent abuse of power.

Political support and the road through parliament

The Bundestag must still approve the bill. Parliament's summer recess ends in early September, and passage is considered a formality given the governing majority of CDU/CSU and SPD. If approved, the new powers are expected to take effect in early 2027. Konstantin von Notz, from the opposition Greens, supports expanding BND powers to bring Germany to the level of partners in Britain, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia. He called the reform long overdue and noted the Federal Constitutional Court had identified urgent reform needs.

Critics warn of eroding separation principle

Von Notz sharply criticized granting the domestic BfV similar expanded powers, arguing that in the domestic sphere nearly two dozen police authorities already handle threat prevention. Equipping a covertly operating security body with such powers would, in his words, create foreseeable chaos and problems, questioning the separation principle born from the experience of the Gestapo during the Nazi era. Civil liberties groups have echoed these concerns, warning of a drift toward a secret police. The separation between intelligence gathering and police enforcement, established after 1945, is now described by critics as in jeopardy. Von Notz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine that Dobrindt is causing far more damage than he is helping with the domestic provisions.

“We are transforming our intelligence services into genuine secret services.”