Formed 1991 Headquarters Bonn | Jurisdiction Government of Germany Employees > 600 | |
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Superseding agency Federal Ministry of the Interior Agency executive Arne Schönbohm (de), President | ||
The Federal Office for Information Security (German: Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, abbreviated as BSI) is the German Upper-level Federal agency in charge of managing computer and communication security for the German government. Its areas of expertise and responsibility include the security of computer applications, critical infrastructure protection, Internet security, cryptography, counter eavesdropping, certification of security products and the accreditation of security test laboratories. It is located in Bonn and has over 600 employees. Its current president, since 1 February 2016, is former business executive Arne Schönbohm, who took over the presidency from Michael Hange.
BSI's predecessor was the cryptographic department of Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND). BSI still designs cryptographic algorithms such as the Libelle cipher and initiated the development of the Gpg4win cryptographic suite.
Similar Agencies
The BSI has a similar role as the
Unlike those organizations, BSI is focused on IT-security rather than being part of an organisation with a more general IT-standards remit. BSI is separate from Germany's signals intelligence, which is part of the military and the foreign intelligence service (BND).