Sitrep: German leak down to officers' 'arrogance' - and Russia could do the same to UK
A conversation between senior German air force officials which was overheard and then leaked by Russia was the result of the "arrogance and self-belief" by those involved, according to a former Army intelligence officer.
Colonel Philip Ingram was on the latest episode of the Sitrep podcast which analyses the top defence stories of the week and is available wherever you get your podcasts.
He said the leak, which saw German air force officers being heard by Russia on an unencrypted call suggesting UK personnel were on the ground in Ukraine, shows how some senior military personnel feel they don't need to stick to the rules regarding security.
"I know the German security services, I know the briefings that they give… to their senior officers," Col Ingram said.
"They will have briefed these officers on the potential threats that are out there.
"But arrogance and self-belief that because you're of a certain rank is something that is frighteningly common in... just about every military that there is.
"The Russians recognise that and the Russians are exploiting it.
"The Chinese recognise that and the Chinese are exploiting it."
Russian media published the 38-minute phone call, which was confirmed as being authentic by the German ministry of defence.
German defence officials are now investigating the call in which the Luftwaffe officers allegedly discussed weapons for Ukraine and a potential strike by Kyiv on a bridge in Crimea.
The call took place on a commercial system called WebEx, similar to Zoom or Microsoft Teams, which promises end-to-end encryption - and authorised by the German MOD for the call.
However, one of the Luftwaffe officers incorrectly joined the meeting through an insecure network, possibly hotel wi-fi, while they were in Singapore for an air show.
"It seems that this senior German officer has been a victim of proper, good old fashioned espionage," said Col Ingram.
"This is a perfect success for Russian intelligence. It's clear that they have identified the senior German officer going off to an air show in Singapore.
"They have put a team on the ground to look at how he behaves and they have used that behaviour to target an intelligence-gathering programme.
"Now if they're doing it to him, you can guarantee they're doing it to senior Nato officers and senior national officers from all the different countries that are contributing to supporting Ukraine."
He added: "It also shows an arrogance of your senior officers when they're away instead of following the rules - and the rules are there for a reason - they think they know better."
Col Ingram said the incident should not just be seen as a "German problem".
"I think every Nato contributing country needs to sit down and go and take the real lessons that come out of this," he said.
"Once that's been identified [we should] go: 'Could that happen to us? What are we doing to ensure that something similar doesn't happen?'."
Defence expert Michael Clarke said on last week’s episode of Sitrep the Germans "can't keep a secret", and while admitting he didn’t expect to be "vindicated quite so quickly", said the leak reflects a deeper reality.
"The Russians are doing this all the time and there's a reason why the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing is so important because it's all based on personal trust," he said.
"Because you're dealing with America, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And so this is the Anglosphere.
"The fact is, they trust each other, the individuals trust each other, whereas we don't share very much with other European countries.
"Governments can order the security services to go out and collaborate with other security services… but they can't make people trust each other.
"Even if they like each other, they don't trust each other to keep a secret and that applies across many European intelligence agencies, sadly."
You can listen to Sitrep wherever you get your podcasts, including on the Forces News YouTube channel.
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