Mass hacking of Germany politicians.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/04/68216482 ... ournalists

Hackers have published cellphone numbers, credit card data and private communications belonging to members of nearly every German political party, in a sweeping breach last month that reportedly also affected German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the only main party whose members were spared from the attack, according to RBB Inforadio, a Berlin-based public broadcaster that broke the story.

In the days before Christmas, hackers quietly posted online the data of some of Germany's most powerful leaders "in a kind of Advent calendar," RBB reported.

Some of the stolen information was years old, and it seems the data dump does not include any political bombshells. Instead, it seems intended to embarrass officials — and inflict personal damage by exposing private chats and financial details.

"The hackers published Merkel's fax number, email address and several letters written by and addressed to her," Deutsche Welle reports, citing the DPA news agency.

"With regard to the Chancellery it seems that, judging by the initial review, no sensitive information and data have been published and this includes (from) the chancellor," a government spokeswoman said, as translated by Deutsche Welle.

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The data was spread via two Twitter accounts named @_0rbit and @_0rbiter, according to security researcher Luca Hammer.

What I know and speculate about #hackerangriff at the moment.

- Two Twitter accounts @_0rbit and @_0rbiter were used to distribute the material.
- It took Twitter way too long to take them down. Google was faster in taking down the blog that was used. https://t.co/U8ghfFbA3b /1
— Luca Hammer (@luca) January 4, 2019
The main account belonged to someone who described themselves as being involved in both security research and satire, Deutsche Welle said. The account had previously published private data belonging to celebrities; the two Twitter accounts and a related blog page are now suspended.

The stolen information was freely available online for days, even weeks, before it gained wide notice. Several artists and journalists also were targeted — hackers hijacked the Twitter account of German YouTube star Simon Unge, and it was that act that caused interest in the breaches to spike.

YouTube producer Tomasz Niemiec, who says he knows the person who took over Unge's account, told news outlet T-online.de that the attacks are the work of a sole hacker — and that the man's goal is to gain attention for himself. In that widely cited interview, Niemiec said he knew the hacker strictly through online communications, and that the man has spent years collecting data and hacking YouTube accounts. Niemiec said he communicated with the hacker on Thursday and urged him to release Unge's account. He did not speculate about the political aspect of publishing the stolen information.

Along with Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union party, the hacking targets included German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, along with the Free Democratic Party and the Green Party.

"The enormous range of stolen data and documents is striking," German public broadcaster ARD reports, "which makes it unlikely that they were captured at one point."

Germany's government deems the mass exposure of sensitive data a "serious attack," according to Justice Minister Katarina Barley, who was quoted by ARD saying that the hackers "want to damage confidence in our democracy and their institutions."

Germany's Federal Office for Information Security says it is investigating, along with the National Cyber Defense Center. It added that government networks are not at risk.

Fallout from the attack has also prompted some finger-pointing in Germany, with security experts accusing politicians of using lax password and privacy practices — and politicians asking why federal authorities seemingly weren't aware of the data leak until a famous YouTuber went public.

Because of the attack's surprising reach, the story was dominating German news sites on Friday, with dozens of stories devoted to the hacking attack (in German, Hackerangriff -- a term that quickly began trending online).

Predominantly targeting Left-wing politicians as well, by the looks of it.

No word yet on who the attackers are, but I know I'm not the first person who's mind went to the Kremlin. Though I suppose it could be homegrown Neo-Fascists, or just some wankers trying to feel important.

Edit: Yes, I'm aware that the article includes a claim of a single hacker attention whoring. However, no name is given, and it appears to be just based on one person's word. So we'll have to see. Hopefully they find the party, or parties, responsible soon.

[aerius]

No, it's not the Russians, just a homegrown wanker.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/german-arr ... -1.4244588

German arrested in politician data hack says he acted alone
Geir Moulson, The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, January 8, 2019 7:26AM EST
Last Updated Tuesday, January 8, 2019 8:47AM EST

BERLIN -- A German student has admitted to obtaining and publishing online hundreds of politicians' and celebrities' data and told investigators that he acted alone, authorities said Tuesday.

The 20-year-old, who wasn't identified in line with privacy regulations, lives with his parents and is still at school, said Georg Ungefuk, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutors' office that specializes in internet crime.

Investigators searched his apartment in central Hesse state on Sunday evening before detaining and questioning him. He has no previous convictions and appears to regret his actions, Ungefuk said at a televised news conference in Wiesbaden.

Authorities say almost 1,000 people were affected by the data breach. In most cases, the information made public was limited to basic contact details, but in up to 60 cases more extensive personal data was published. It was posted via Twitter before Christmas, but only came to most people's attention on Thursday night.

The information appeared to include data on members of all parties in parliament except those from the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Ungefuk said the suspect told investigators that "he acted out of annoyance at public statements by the politicians, journalists and public personalities involved." He said, however, that the search of his apartment didn't immediately turn up "objective indications of any particular political motivation."

He "said that he acted alone in illegally obtaining data and then publishing it," Ungefuk said. Investigations so far have produced no evidence that anyone else was involved, he added.

The suspect was released Monday for lack of legal grounds that would justify keeping him in custody, such as a risk of collusion or flight risk.

He could face charges of illegally obtaining data and handling stolen data, which can carry a sentence of up to three years in prison for adults. However, this case is being considered under juvenile law, which carries lesser sentences, and Ungefuk noted that the suspect has co-operated with investigators, and helped them recover data he deleted after the case became public.

It wasn't immediately clear when the hacking started.

Investigators say the suspect also collected publicly available information on the politicians, journalists and others to the data -- which included telephone numbers, addresses, credit card details, photos and communications -- and published the material using links posted on Twitter accounts including one with the handle "G0d." The account was suspended on Friday.

Questions have been raised about the way the data breach was handled by Germany's IT security agency, after it emerged that it was made aware of it weeks before the extent of the data collection became clear on Thursday.

The IT security agency has acknowledged that it was approached by one lawmaker about suspicious activity on his private email and social media accounts in early December, but said it believed at the time his experience was a one-time case.

[The Romulan Republic]

And internet jackass it is.

It would almost be less scary if it were Russians. Oh for the days when it took the resources of a government to cause a major security breach that threatened hundreds of prominent politicians. Now, it just takes a wanker with a laptop and too much time on his hands.

[Ace Pace]

And internet jackass it is.

It would almost be less scary if it were Russians. Oh for the days when it took the resources of a government to cause a major security breach that threatened hundreds of prominent politicians. Now, it just takes a wanker with a laptop and too much time on his hands.

Those days never existed. The first good network operation was run by a german dude from his basement in the 80s. Modern leaks were nearly all run by small independent teams.

[The Romulan Republic]

I was referring to the pre-internet days altogether, really.

[K. A. Pital]

I was referring to the pre-internet days altogether, really.

But how is hacking by a schoolkid grounds for wanting to roll back the time so much?

I mean, there are worse things than having details of politicians’ lives being leaked over the net. This is almost unworthy of being news in our time.