Authorities: Possible data leak at the Federal Statistical Office

After indications of a possible data leak, the Federal Statistical Office took a digital reporting system for authorities offline as a precautionary measure. “The security authorities have been called in and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is analyzing the matter,” said the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden. When asked whether hackers could be responsible for the data leak, it was said that there was “no reliable information yet”.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior spoke of a “cyber incident”. When asked, a spokesman said “that several login data for the IDEV data platform operated by the Federal Statistical Office as well as an approximately 3.8 gigabyte data set with allegedly stolen data were offered on a darknet forum.” The IDEV service was then taken offline as a precautionary measure. The security authorities are working intensively in close coordination with the Federal Office to investigate the incident, said the spokesman.

The President of the Federal Statistical Office, Ruth Brand, is also the Federal Returning Officer. The IT systems of the Federal Statistical Office and the IT systems of the Federal Returning Officer are technically separate and independent, a spokesman for the Federal Office and the Federal Returning Officer explained when asked. Preparations for the 2025 federal election went according to plan. The Federal Statistical Office uses various systems for data collection and processing.

The affected reporting system IDEV (Internet Data Collection in the Statistical Association) is an internet portal “via which reports on various official statistics can be transmitted to the federal and state statistical offices. The prescribed reporting deadlines are suspended until the matter has been clarified,” it said further.

For the time being, there is no indication that the federal states’ IDEV systems could also be affected. “As a purely precautionary measure, however, the states have also taken their systems offline until the matter has been clarified,” added the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. Initially, its own statistical information for the public could still be found on its website.