Germany’s Responses to Large Scale Malicious Cyber Incidents and Opportunities for AUS-GER future cooperation

Julia Schuetze contributed a chapter titled 'Germany’s Responses to Large Scale Malicious Cyber Incidents and Opportunities for AUS-GER future cooperation' in 'PERISCOPE Vol. 3 2020: The Convergence Puzzle: Australia, Germany and Emerging Cybersecurity Trends' edited by Katja Theodorakis. 'PERISCOPE' is the Occasional Analysis Paper series of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Regional Programme Australia and the Pacific, a collection of contributions from Australia and Germany concerned with emerging trends, challenges and patterns in cybersecurity relevant to both countries. 

The chapter focuses on the challenge of large scale cyber incidents that can disrupt national security and the economy. Schuetze first describes Germany's response to the challenge thus far and provides an analysis of German domestic and foreign policy response tools. In the second half of the paper, she identifies three opportunities of cooperation: 

1) Dialogue on German and Australian response instruments. Increased dialogue would shed more light on the possible options each country has, as well as increase awareness about the conditions under which Germany would respond on the EU level, on its own, or join a coalition of countries.

2) Focus on threat analysis to prevent large scale cyber incidents. Starting with a common concern and common goal would assist both countries in identifying opportunities for closer cooperation. An example of a common concern is the threat to critical infrastructure, more specifically a threat from cyberspace that could halt the successful implementation of energy transition that both countries have planned. 

3) Collaborative work not just on norm development, but also on norm implementation, thereby supporting global governance cooperation platforms achieve norm implementation.