The German Army admitted on Saturday that a flaw in its video conferencing software system had made thousands of meetings publicly available on the internet.
It emerged that meetings of the German Bundeswehr could be accessed using simple search terms on the army’s Webex system. More than 6,000 meetings could be found on the internet, some of which were classified.
The army said the error was corrected within 24 hours of it coming to their attention.
“The videoconferences could not be attended without the knowledge and permission of the participants,” an army spokesman told French news agency AFP. “Therefore, no confidential content could have been released from the conferences,” at least according to the spokesman, but previous incidents paint a slightly different picture.
In March, the Russians leaked an audio recording on the internet of air force officials talking about giving Ukraine long-range missiles. The “incident” is currently under investigation by federal prosecutors.
The virtual meeting rooms under scrutiny were used by nearly 250,000 soldiers, and the security breach occurred in the Bundeswehr’s own version of Webex, which is supposed to be more secure than the publicly available version.
Reporters found the online meeting room of Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz, whose name was revealed in the earlier leak. According to Zeit Online, the military only became aware of the security weaknesses when they were approached for comment.
