Massive data attack in Germany targets Merkel, hundreds of politicians

Germany’s cybersecurity authorities are facing backlash from some lawmakers after it was revealed that they knew about a mass data attack on hundreds of politicians for weeks, but did not tell the police.

Journalists, celebrities and politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, are among those whose personal data was published online.

The attacks took place throughout December last year, but did not become public knowledge until yesterday.

It is unclear who was responsible.

According to reports, the contacts, private chats and financial details of prominent figures from every political party, except the far-right AfD, were posted on Twitter.

The interior ministry says there is no evidence that parliamentary or government systems have been compromised.

The ministry indicated, too, that it is still not clear whether the attack was the result of hacking or was leaked by someone with access.

The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has come under fire after it emerged that they knew about the leak since December, but the Federal Crime Office was only notified yesterday.

President of BSI Arne Schoenbohm told journalists that his team "held corresponding talks very early in December with certain members of parliament who were affected" and launched a "mobile incident response team".

However, Dietmar Bartsch, parliamentary head of the left-wing Die Linke party, called the secrecy "completely unacceptable" and asked if the office had "something to hide".

Another lawmaker, André Han was furious.

"It makes me unbelievably cross that yet again I've found out about such things from the media, even though I'm a member of the parliamentary monitoring group,” Han said.

“The federal government's duty to keep parliament informed still applies between Christmas and the new year," he added.

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