Student arrested over biggest dump of hacked data in Germany
A student has been arrested in connection to the biggest dump of hacked data in German history, affecting hundreds of politicians including Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The information – home addresses, mobile phone numbers, letters, invoices and copies of identity documents – was first released on Twitter last month.
German prosecutors arrested the man, 20, at his home in the state of Hesse on Sunday.
The young man, who acted on his own, lives with his parents. Germany’s investigative police force said his apartment was searched on Sunday before he was arrested.
Yesterday, investigators from the Frankfurt am Main Attorney General’s Office revealed that the suspect was released on Monday and that he could be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison for each of the two offences, spying on data and leaking it.
But given his young age and clean criminal record, he will probably receive a lighter punishment.
He said he acted out of anger at statements made by politicians. Investigators said he confessed and was co-operating with the police.
The home of another man, 19, who had contact with the hacker, was searched in Heilbronn, a town north of Stuttgart.
Identified only as Jan S, he denied being the main perpetrator behind the leaks but claimed to know “Orbit”, the name used by the hacker to claim responsibility on Twitter.
Jan S tweeted that he had been in touch with Orbit for years through an encrypted messenger service.
Frankfurt prosecutors are set to release information on their findings after the house search, the Federal Crime Office said.
The data, which trickled out over weeks, was leaked on a Twitter account that described itself using the words “security researching,” “artist” and “satire and irony”.
The documents were published online in the form of an advent calendar with one post a day, but appear to have gone unnoticed until the first week of January when it was closed down. The account had 18,000 followers.
The data includes email addresses as well as chat transcripts from Economy Minister Peter Altmaier. All major German political parties were affected except for the far-right Alternative for Germany.
Investigators and the Interior Ministry said while the leak was sweeping, there was no evidence that sensitive information reached the public.
Experts in hacking have said the perpetrator did little to hide his activities.
“The procedure was simply very careless, it was chatted with those affected, details of the procedure were revealed,” said Linus Neumann of the Chaos Computer Club collective.