Over 6,000 classified German army meetings leaked online, Bundeswehr admits flaw in video-conferencing tool

Germany’s military admitted a major flaw in the video-conferencing tool it uses after thousands of its classified meetings were publicly accessible online. Earlier this week, German news outlet Zeit Online reported that they were able to access German Bundeswehr meetings online by just using simple search terms on the military’s Webex system.

The report mentioned that over 6,000 meetings could be found online and emphasised that most of these meetings were classified. The German military wing on Saturday admitted its mistake and stated that the bug was fixed within 24 hours after being made aware.

“It was not possible to participate in the video conferences without the knowledge of the participants or without authorization,” a spokesperson for the military told AFP.

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“No confidential content could therefore leave the conferences,” the spokesperson furthered.

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It is pertinent to note that the Bundeswehr is already on the defence after audio of a meeting between its Air Force officials was leaked online in March. In the leaked audio the Air Force officials were heard discussing the decision to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles.

The whole incident is currently being investigated by federal prosecutors.

In the latest leak, Zeit Online stated that it got access to meeting rooms which were used by 248,000 German soldiers. The breach occurred on the Bundeswehr’s own Webex version, which is touted as more secure than the publicly available version.

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Webex is a popular public platform for audio and video meetings, with additional security buffers built in.

The news outlet was able to find the online meeting room of Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz, whose name came up during the March breach as well. Zeit Online also mentioned that the German military was only made aware of the incident after they were approached for a comment.

Some of the topics discussed during these meetings included the long-range Taurus missiles that Ukraine has been asking for, and the issue of online warfare.

The news outlet also stated that they were able to access these meeting rooms due to the weak online design that lacked even password protection. The security issue was first identified by the Netzbegruenung, a group of cyber-activists.

Zeit Online also mentioned that the Webex sites of Chancellor Olaf Scholz as well as key government ministers had the same flaws and that they were able to connect to Scholz’s site on Saturday as well.