AfD hit by 'powerful cyberattack' — 421,179 emails posted online, party confirms breach

Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been hit by a “powerful cyberattack” in which unknown hackers broke into the party’s mailboxes and posted the correspondence online, the German newspaper Bild reported on Tuesday.

The total number of compromised emails was 421,179, amounting to 281 GB of data, Bild said. Among the published material was a photograph of the identity document of Markus Frohnmaier, deputy chairman of the AfD’s Bundestag faction, as well as accounts, bank statements, certificates, party membership applications and lists of members of regional branches in North Rhine-Westphalia. Some correspondence was linked to party figures Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland.

The party confirmed that its hosting provider had been attacked in September and that parts of several mailboxes had been copied unlawfully, most of them long unused. It said its current federal-party mailboxes were unaffected, and that it was examining the material’s authenticity and its connection to the September breach.

The authenticity of the published material has not yet been independently confirmed, and the party has not identified those responsible for the intrusion.

Sources:

• Izvestia, “The media reported a powerful cyberattack on the resources of the AFG” (20 Oct 2026): https://en.iz.ru/en/2187126/2026-10-20/media-reported-powerful-cyberattack-resources-afg
• linksgraph, “AfD confirms cyberattack and investigates data published online” (20 Oct 2026, published 2026-10-20T03:14Z): https://linksgraph.com/en/afd-confirms-cyberattack-and-investigates-data-published-online