The FDP wants to stop Bahn from using Huawei technology

The fact that Deutsche Bahn (DB) relies on components from Huawei for its digital infrastructure, despite growing international concerns about potential espionage, is facing sharp criticism in the traffic light consortium. Even the LDP now enforces a legal ban. “The law needs to be tightened so that Chinese technology cannot be run in Deutsche Bahn’s IT network,” Maximilian Funk Kaiser, spokesman for digital policy for the FDP’s parliamentary group, told Handelsblatt (Wednesday’s edition).

Tracking system via DTS news agency

As part of the EU-wide bidding process, Deutsche Bahn Group awarded a contract to Telekom (Telekom Business-Solutions) last December to build an in-house IT network using technology from the Chinese group. A spokeswoman for the railway said: “It is the responsibility of the supplier to specify technical components to the given specifications.” In light of the criticisms expressed, she clarified that “there was no warning” from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) regarding the use of Huawei technology.

The responsible Federal Ministry of Transport sided with the railways. A spokesperson for the ministry said that, as an operator of non-public mobile radio networks, the group is under no obligation to certify critical components nor to notify the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the installation of critical components. SPD digital politician Jens Zimmermann criticized the railway board. “There has been complete ignorance of the problem at DB for a long time. From my point of view, you are trying to solve the whole problem,” Zimmerman said.

“I can only recommend that the board take the issue very seriously.” And CDU security politician Roderich Kiesewetter sees it as “fundamentally wrong in terms of strategy and security policy” to rely on Huawei for digital infrastructure, especially when it comes to critical infrastructure how the rail network works, says Kiesewetter. This leaves you “extremely vulnerable,” he said.