Private data of many German political figures and top-notch individuals including Chancellor Angela Merkel has been leaked online. This seems to be one of Germany’s most extensive data breaks.
The data was disclosed from a Twitter account, @hatr, which has been proscribed. The leak includes email addresses, phone numbers, photo IDs and other personal data of these individuals. The identity of the perpetrators and their reason were not identified.
Horst Seehofer, Interior Minister said an initial investigation shows that the data were obtained through wrongful use of log-in information for cloud services, email accounts or social networks.
There was no indication that the computer systems of the German lower house of parliament or the government had been compromised, Horst said in a statement. It remained unclear if the breach, which activated an emergency meeting of the BSI national cyber defense agency, was the result of a hack or a leak.
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According to Reuters, authorities were probing all possibilities, including spying, quoting a source that it was unlikely that any single person could have amassed the massive volumes of data that had been released.
German media disclosed that a fax number and two email addresses used by Merkel had been published but the government said no sensitive material from her office had been released.
The hacked material included private chats by Greens leader Robert Habeck with family members and the identity cards of his children, a source familiar with the matter said.
Die Welt newspaper reported late Friday that published lists included names of 410 members of Merkel’s conservatives, 230 Social Democrats, 106 Greens party members, 91 members of the radical Left party and 28 Free Democrats.