The Great Hack ;-)
Perhaps you heard about the Hacking Attack on German politicians and VIPs at the beginning of this year: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/hacker-politiker-leaks-1.4274515
Some of the politicians went so far to state an "Attack on Democracy"
https://www.br.de/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/hackerangriff-die-betroffenen-und-die-reaktionen,RECfUR7
In FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) the spokeswomen of German CCC (Chaos Computer Club) Constanze Kurz offers a more fact-based view on the attack:
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/aus-dem-maschinenraum/aufregung-nach-datenklau-hacker-super-gau-um-banale-daten-15975101.html?printPagedArticle=true#pageIndex_0
Part of this article is a satirical reality proclamation of a "Hack back":
https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.reaktionen-auf-den-hacker-angriff-cdu-vizefraktionschef-fordert-recht-zum-digitalen-gegenschlag.1dc3b310-066b-469b-aebd-df845919c840.html
Data insufficiently protected by weak passwords is stolen every day in thousands of cases. For sure there are also politicians and VIPs among the victims. In this special case the data was made publicly available in the internet and not only within the darknet. While this happens, we all are systematically monitored and analysed by enterprises collecting data and dealing with data. Data sources are e.g. our smartphones, our digital warehouse accounts or digital TV devices. The data collected and processed opens detailed insight into private habits. Of course, during the activation of the data sources, we all agreed to receive the benefits of those services. But those services can also be subject to misuse e.g. for winning elections by analysing facebook accounts: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica#Einflussnahme_auf_US-Wahlk%C3%A4mpfe In comparison to publishing some address data and documents of VIPs I would consider this type of systematic surveillance a big breach of privacy. But if a German secondary school pupil publishes some stolen data, this is an attack on democracy? This is not a detailed analysis of the "Great Hack" but it may be an impulse to reflect the individual privacy situation.
Take a look at our Master Programme to learn more about Privacy:
(repost; originally posted on 2019-01-24)
May 2019