According to Section 3 of the BSIG, the BSI, as the national cyber security agency, can advise and warn state governments about information security, and provide them with support in their efforts to secure their information technology and avert threats.

The overall objective of this federal-and-state cooperation is to create a uniformly high level of IT security. In light of the continued advance of digitalisation in administration and the increasing level of networking between federal and state IT structures, this objective is becoming ever more important.

Cooperative structures

Within the BSI, structures are maintained at the strategic, advisory and operational levels in order to shape federal-and-state cooperation in the field of IT security.

• The security consulting of the BSI is the central contact point for consulting requests from the federal and state administrations in the context of information security management (ISMS). This team provides support to information security officers at federal agencies for activities such as the rollout of an ISMS or the need to identify well-balanced solutions to questions of information security.
• The BSI's National Liaison Offices (NLOs) shape the BSI's relations with national partners in the fields of government, business and society. The NLOs are also the first port of call at regional level for state-level enquiries. The expansion of cooperative efforts with the relevant contact persons at state level is an important point of focus for the BSI's liaison officers.

• Operational cooperation with state agencies is handled via VerwaltungsCERT-Verbund (VCV). Through the VCV, the CERTs (computer emergency response teams) of the Federal Government and the federal states aim to improve the exchange of information in order to be able to react more effectively and more quickly to IT attacks. In addition to regular meetings and joint exercises, the provision of mutual support during IT security incidents has also been agreed within the VCV.

Cooperation agreements with the states

If requested, the BSI can sign cooperation agreements with individual states. The goal is to strengthen cooperation in the field of information security, while also adjusting the points of focus and support services provided by the BSI individually and according to demand.
The BSI initiated model partnerships with the states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate in 2017, with Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Saarland, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony and Thuringia following in 2018. Agreements were signed with Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2019. Other cooperation agreements are currently in preparation.