Germany plans to better protect its critical infrastructure with a law passed on Thursday as surging tensions with Russia stoke fears of sabotage attacks and other national security threats. The measures cover facilities that provide critical services to at least 500,000 people in sectors including energy, water, food, health, transport, IT, telecommunications, financial services and waste disposal. Many security experts have welcomed the new critical infrastructure bill in principle, but others have harshly criticised it as too little too late. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned Tuesday of "the increasing number of hybrid attacks in many European countries, with critical infrastructure being targeted at the click of a mouse, data cables being cut in the Baltic Sea, drone-based espionage and media disinformation campaigns". Chancellor Friedrich Merz has now vowed to turn Germany's army into Europe's largest conventional force, but Schulz said building infrastructure resilience is "at least as important as tanks and drones, if not more so".