Chaos in digital radio: Disruptions endanger security forces in Germany!

Chaos in digital radio: Disruptions endanger security forces in Germany!

On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, there were considerable disorders in the digital radio of the authorities in parts of Germany that lasted two hours. According to the Federal Institute for Digital radio of the authorities and organizations with security tasks have been attributed to network errors that have now been resolved. Affected federal states included Bremen, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland and Thuringia.

The radio connections were temporarily completely interrupted, especially in cities like Hamburg. Emergency services from the police and fire brigade had to improvise and use mobile phones or analog radio technology, which made it difficult to coordinate the emergency services. Despite the disorders, however, the emergency call remained available, which ensured critical care of the population.

cause of the disorders

The disorders were caused according to deskmodder by supra-regional network problems in the central network control. However, it is important to emphasize that this has not been officially confirmed. The Federal Institute found that the network based on Tetra standard has redundant structures and technical security mechanisms to intercept local failures.

on Tuesday evening, around 9:15 p.m., the Federal Institute announced the all -clear after the cause of the error was identified and remedied. Nevertheless, the system processes were further monitored in order to be able to react quickly to possible future disorders.

safety aspects and tetra

The tetra standard used for the authorities' digital radio has both advantages and disadvantages as a security standard. As explained in a report by Heise , several vulnerabilities have been discovered on the radio standard. This includes five security gaps that could make attackers possible to listen to communication or send fraudsters.

Tetra, standardized since 1995 by the European Institute for Telecommunications NORMS (ETSI), is used worldwide for digital official radio and is the most widespread radio system for police and blue light organizations in over 100 countries. However, the integrated security mechanisms are controversial, in particular the fact that a weak point was intentionally installed in order to weaken the encryption of the exported version.

In Germany, the standard is operated by leading manufacturers such as Airbus, Hytera and Motorola. The discovery of these weak points has alerted specialist groups and means that researchers want to present their results at international conferences. It remains to be seen which future developments can be expected with regard to the security and stability of digital radio.