German politicians targeted in mass data attack

Hundreds of German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have had personal details stolen and published online. Contacts, private chats and financial details were put out on Twitter that belong to figures from every political party except the far-right AfD. Data from celebrities and journalists were also leaked.
It is unclear who was behind the attack, which emerged on Twitter in the style of an advent calendar last month. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the authorities were working hard to find the perpetrator. There was, he said in a statement, as yet no evidence that German parliamentary or government systems had been compromised.
The leak appears to have originated on a Twitter account operated from Hamburg and the authorities in the north German city say they are now working with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner to stop the spread of German politicians' data.
As Twitter's European headquarters are located in Dublin, the leak falls under the remit of the Irish data protection authority, national broadcaster RTE reports.