Arrested German hacker confesses to leaking politicians’ information, report says

It looks like Russia turned out to be a red herring, after all. German police have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with a data breach that resulted in the publication of personal information about hundreds of lawmakers from Germany’s Parliament, the Bundestag. Germany’s federal criminal police, known as the BKA, said they searched the suspect’s home on Sunday, confiscating his computer and other personal materials. The young man has confessed to the crime, a prosecutor told the New York Times. The security incident was widely publicized last week when the @_0rbit Twitter account began distributing phone numbers, home addresses and other data about public figures in Germany, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. Representatives from all parties in the Bundestag were affected, except for the far-right Alternative for Germany. The political nature of the data dump, when considered with suspected Russian hackers’ persistent targeting of Germany’s political establishment, led some researchers and at least […]

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German investigators question teenager, search residence, as breach probe continues

Germany’s federal police agency said Monday it has questioned suspects and searched property as part of its investigation into the data breach that led to the publication of hundreds of lawmakers’ personal information. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said in a Facebook post that officials have been active in the town of Heilbronn, in northern Germany, in the hunt for information about the publication last week of phone numbers, addresses and other data about German officials and journalists. The announcement followed tweets from Jan Schürlein, a German IT developer who announced that authorities had spent four hours on Sunday looking through his home. Da es überall im Fernsehen & den Medien zu sehen ist, ja dass BKA hat gestern in einer mehrstündigen Razzia meine Wohnräume durchsucht. Ich möchte ganz klar darauf hinweisen, dass ich ausschließlich als Zeuge geführt werde. Das BKA bat um öffentliche Zurückhaltung. — Jan Schürlein (@Janomine) […]

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