Hundreds of German politicians including Chancellor Angela Merkel have had personal details hacked and published online, reports say.
Contacts, private chats and credit card details were put out on Twitter which belong to figures from every political party except the far-right AfD.
Data from celebrities and journalists also appear to have been leaked.
It is unclear who was behind the hack, which emerged on Twitter last month in the style of an advent calendar.
How extensive was the attack?
The true extent of damage caused by the leak is not yet known although Justice Minister Katarina Barley said it was a “serious attack”.
“The people behind this want to damage confidence in our democracy and institutions,” she said.
Germany’s federal office for information security (BSI) said it was investigating the hack and said government networks were not affected, as far as it was aware.
Although no politically sensitive documents appear to have been published, the sheer extent of personal data leaked suggests the consequences could be considerable, says RBB reporter Michael Götschenberg, who researched the hack.
The Twitter account, followed by 17,000 people, appeared to be linked to an internet platform based in Hamburg, he said. Although documents had been posted on the account last month, it was not until Thursday evening that officials became aware of the hack.
Source:BBC