Outgoing Defense Secretary Henk Kamp wants to amend the Security and Intelligence Services Act so that the AIVD and MIVD can act stronger and more effectively against cyber threats. The outgoing minister will not say what exactly will change next week.

Henk Camp talks about his plans for Interview with NRC. In it, he says that the Netherlands is not well protected from cyber threats from other countries such as Russia. Camp says espionage in particular is a big problem. “Cyber ​​attacks and attempts are carried out with incorrect or suggestive information to incite the population against their government,” the minister said. At the same time, he calls Holland “with hands tied behind her back” when it comes to defending against her. Countries like Russia and China can do whatever they want, but we have moral principles and rules.

These principles and rules are primarily based on the Intelligence and Security Services Act. This was reviewed extensively in 2017 and outlines what AIVD and its military counterpart MIVD can do and under what circumstances. Camp wants to change this law. He’s spent the past few months working on a bill that includes changes, along with acting Ollengren from the inside. Kamp does not want to say what changes occurred in the interview. There will first be a temporary bill, but the final amendment to the law “will have to wait a while.”

In any case, Kamp hopes that the law amendment will make it easier for AIVD and MIVD to tap into cable internet traffic. This was one of the most significant changes to Wiv in 2017, but so far the services have not been allowed to use that power. This is because the supervisor always refuses a request from the MIVD or AIVD, Kamp says.

Another point is that it should be easier to find out where the attack came from. “Technically speaking, Country X could hack into a hundred computers in different Western countries, connect them together and launch cyberattacks from there; and then not know where the attacks are coming from,” Camp says.

In the interview, the minister did not say anything about the so-called offensive cyber capabilities. in a electoral data Several parties wrote last year that they wanted AIVD and investigative services to be able to carry out offensive cyber attacks more easily on their own. This could be, for example, to preventively disable a server that was used during the attack.

Camp took over the outgoing defense secretary at the end of September. He succeeded the outgoing minister at the time, Ank Bielefeld. She resigned because of the evacuation mission in Afghanistan. Camp will step down next week when the new Rutte IV department is appointed. In it, Kagsa Olungren takes over from Camp. She is now the outgoing Home Secretary and is therefore already involved in the bill. This has yet to be approved by the House of Representatives, and therefore it is not a fait accompli.