Possible data leak in the Federal Statistics Office

Following indications of a possible data leak, the Federal Statistics Office took the digital reporting system for officials offline as a precaution. “Security authorities have been called in and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is analyzing the case,” the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden said. When asked if cyber criminals could be responsible for the data leak, it said “there is no reliable information yet”.

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The Federal Interior Ministry spoke of a “cyber incident”. When asked, a spokesperson said, “Approximately 3.8 gigabytes of data sets containing allegedly stolen data, along with multiple login data for the IDEV data platform operated by the Federal Statistics Office, were offered on a darknet forum.” After this, the IDEV service was taken offline as a precaution. Security officials are working intensively to investigate the incident, in close coordination with the federal office, the spokesperson said.

Federal elections will not be affected in 2025

The President of the Federal Statistics Office, Ruth Brand, is also the Federal Returning Officer. A spokesperson for the Federal Statistics Office and the Federal Returning Officer explained upon request that the IT systems of the Federal Statistics Office and the IT systems of the Federal Returning Officer are technically separate and independent. Preparations for the 2025 federal election proceeded as planned. The Federal Statistical Office uses various systems for data collection and processing.

The affected reporting system IDEV (Internet Data Archive in Statistical Association) is an Internet portal “through which reports on various official statistics can be transmitted to federal and state statistical offices. The prescribed reporting deadlines are suspended until the matter is clarified. Is.” “It was further said.

precautionary measures

At the moment, there is no indication that the IDEV systems of the federal states may also be affected. “However, as a purely precautionary measure, the states have also taken their systems offline until the matter is clarified,” the federal statistics office in Wiesbaden said. Initially, its own statistical information for the public could still be found on its website.

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