The AfD party has reportedly notified the responsible state data protection authority significantly late following the hacking of its email accounts. The data protection commissioner for Berlin, who is responsible for federal parties, informed the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” that the party reported a data protection incident on Tuesday, October 20, at 6:59 PM.
However, the AfD claims that the hack was known internally shortly after the incident in September, long before the leak of around 421,000 emails and tens of thousands of other files onto the internet that Monday. Furthermore, the party had issued a press release Tuesday afternoon stating that it had immediately informed the account owners as well as the data protection commissioner. According to the RND report, this announcement was sent out at 4:51 PM-more than two hours before the notification actually reached the state data protection authority.
When pressed by the RND regarding these discrepancies, the party declined to comment. A party spokesperson stated that those specifics were details they would not and could not comment on, adding that the AfD would not make any further statements beyond the press release issued on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Berlin state data protection commissioner informed the RND that relevant responsible parties are fundamentally required to report a breach of the protection of personal data to the competent supervisory authority within 72 hours, and potentially also to inform the affected individuals about the incident.
