German secret services rely on Google's cloud system

Exclusive exchange of secret information German intelligence services rely on Google As of: October 26, 2026 • 6:11 a.m

In order to be able to exchange secret information with each other more quickly, the BND, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and MAD want to build a common cloud system. According to research by NDR and WDR, Google should play a significant role in this.

If a secret service agent wants to read a secret document, he can only do so in the office on specially equipped computers. Sending such files via email is complicated. The so-called red systems, on which documents classified as “confidential” or “secret” are stored, are particularly protected and shielded. This makes the exchange of secret information between the German intelligence services not exactly easy.

That's about to change: According to research by NDR and WDR, the federal intelligence services are planning to set up a cloud system, a so-called ND cloud, through which information up to the "secret" classification can be exchanged electronically. Although digital sovereignty is supposed to be a decisive criterion, the authorities apparently want to use a product from the US tech company Google.

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The “ND Cloud” is to be used by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) of the Bundeswehr. For the first time, the authorities would be able to quickly and extensively exchange data up to the “secret” level. In the future, the constitutional protection authorities of the federal states should also be connected.

According to information from NDR and WDR, this cloud will be based on the Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) product, namely a so-called air-gapped version. This means that the system operates autonomously, without a direct connection to the Internet or Google. The data is said to be stored in Germany and Google does not have access to it. It should therefore be a separate IT network that is particularly protected.

The plan was apparently to put the system into operation in the first quarter of 2027, but the project has been delayed: According to information from NDR and WDR, several components of the planned "ND Cloud" are currently still undergoing an approval process by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Only when these approvals have been granted will the budget funds for the costly project be released. According to insiders, the estimated costs should amount to at least 500 million euros.

“If approved, it can be assumed that the requirements for data storage and data processing for such sensitive content are met,” says Sven Herpig, Head of Cybersecurity & Emerging Threats at Interface, an independent organization of IT specialists and cybersecurity experts. However, he points out that future updates could lead to changes to the software.

“The updates would continue to come from Google. Then the question arises: Can the operator in this country even assess what effects an update may have?” says Herpig. "This in turn raises the question: How big do changes have to be before an update version has to be re-evaluated and approved?"

In principle, the choice of a Google product seems contradictory to the latest statements from representatives of the security authorities with regard to digital sovereignty. “Ultimately, we have to be able to offer alternatives,” said Sinan Selen, President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), last year when asked whether his agency should use US software solutions for data analysis.

When asked about the use of the Google product, the BfV writes that "the BfV's ability to act and innovate depends directly on the availability of modern IT systems and technology platforms." In order to strengthen one's own "technical resilience", "European solutions are of particular interest". Furthermore, neither BND, MAD nor BfV wanted to answer questions about the cloud.

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In addition to the software, it is particularly necessary to set up data centers with sufficient capacity. According to current plans, the intelligence services also want to use BWI, the Bundeswehr's IT system house, to operate the "ND Cloud". This had already announced a partnership with Google last summer in order to process data from the Bundeswehr protected on Google Cloud Air-Gapped systems.

Intelligence services are confronted with more and more data; in the future they should also be able to use automated data analysis, for example using artificial intelligence. The BND will soon be able to collect, store and process more data as part of strategic reconnaissance. This requires larger storage and computing capacities.

The secret services of other countries also rely on cloud services from commercial providers to store, process and exchange secret information. For example, Amazon provides such a system to the US secret services and the US military with its Amazon Web Services (AWS) Secret Cloud product. In 2021, media also reported that a contract had been signed with Amazon for the intelligence cloud in the UK.

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This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | German secret services rely on Google | Oct 26, 2026 | 6:10 a.m