Germany's statistical office reports possible data leak

Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has suspended a digital reporting system for authorities after indications of a possible data leak, it announced on Friday.

"The security authorities have been called in and the Federal Office for Information Security is analysing the situation," the office in the western city of Wiesbaden said.

When asked whether hackers could be responsible for the leak, Destatis said "no reliable findings" were available for the time being.

Germany's Interior Ministry referred to the case as a "cyber incident."

A spokesman from the ministry said login details for a data reporting platform called IDEV, operated by Destatis and used to send data to the regional and federal government offices, as well as a data set of about 3.8 gigabytes with allegedly captured information, had been offered on a darknet forum.

The IDEV platform was taken offline as a precaution, he said, adding that security authorities are working intensively to solve the incident, in close coordination with Destatis.

The president of Destatis, Ruth Brand, is also the Federal Returning Officer, responsible for overseeing the preparations for Germany's upcoming elections.

The Destatis spokesman said, however, that the Federal Returning Officer used a separate IT system and that preparations for the elections were going according to plan.