Mass cyber attack on German politicians

A mass data attack on German politicians, journalists, and celebrities was discovered by Germany’s cyber defense agency, The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) on Thursday night.

Hackers published the data (some of it personal) online. One of the victims was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who many editorials called the most powerful woman in the world.

The attacks, which took place throughout December 2018, were not discovered by the BSI until Thursday, and the public found out on Friday.

The contacts and private chats, as well as financial information, of prominent members of every political party in Germany except the far-right AfD were posted online.

Although many have been quick to blame the AfD, others blame hackers that wanted to frame the far-right party while some believe a splinter group or an extremist is to blame

German authorities have not discovered the culprits yet.

The BSI received widespread criticism after it emerged they knew about the leak since December.

The BSI chief Arne Schoenbohm told a broadcaster that they had notified the victims in early December and that they had launched a “mobile incident response team”.

On Saturday, the BSI revealed that it had known about five isolated cases for the duration of December, but had failed to understand until Thursday night.

Among what was published, there was Chancellor Merkel’s email address and certain communications from it; five political parties were targeted; leader of the Greens Party Robert Habeck had his credit card details posted online; and rappers, journalists, and satirists were also attacked.