The German Ministry of the Interior said that the new center will combine resources from various government agencies, including the federal police and foreign intelligence agency. It will also include participation from industry.
The German center will be modeled after the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia, as well as cybersecurity centers in the US and the UK.
This is in response to a surge in reported cyber attacks in 2010. For the first nine months of 2010, the German government recorded 1600 cyber attacks, compared with 900 cyber attacks in all of 2009, according to Deutsche Welle (DW).
"There has been a sharp rise in so-called electronic attacks on the networks of German government and local authorities. Germany is a very high-tech country with considerable experience and know-how, so, of course, others will naturally try to get hold of this knowledge – China is playing a large role in this”, ministry spokesman Stefan Paris was quoted by DW as saying.