Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has suspended a digital reporting system for authorities following indications of a possible data breach, it announced on Friday.
“Security authorities have been called in and the Federal Office for Information Security is analyzing the situation,” the office in the western city of Wiesbaden said.
Asked whether hackers could be responsible for the leak, Destatis said there are “no reliable findings” available for now.
The German Interior Ministry called the case a “cyber incident.”
A ministry spokesperson said login credentials were offered for a data reporting platform called IDEV, operated by Destatis and used to send data to regional and federal government offices, as well as a dataset of about 3.8 gigabytes of allegedly recorded information. on a darknet forum.
The IDEV platform was taken offline as a precaution, he said, adding that security authorities are working intensively to resolve the incident, in close cooperation with Destatis.
Destatis President Ruth Brand is also the Federal Returning Officer, responsible for overseeing preparations for Germany’s upcoming elections.
However, the Destatis spokesperson said the Federal Returning Officer was using a separate IT system and preparations for the elections were proceeding as planned.
