Overview
- The AfD confirmed a September 2026 breach at a party hosting provider that copied parts of several mailboxes, and the party has notified authorities and begun an internal review.
- On Monday an anonymous site and torrent link surfaced claiming about 421,179 AfD emails and related files, with reporters finding alleged ID photos, invoices, bank statements and membership lists, but independent verification of authenticity is still pending.
- Investigators have taken over a separate case in Heilbronn in which a compromised CDU local email account sent roughly 5,000–6,500 phishing messages to contacts that included Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and authorities say the entry point appears to have been a phishing message.
- Security and party officials are conducting forensic checks while warning the public not to download the archive, and the AfD says current federal mailboxes were not affected though older or seldom‑used accounts may be included.
- The incidents highlight risks from relying on third‑party hosting, the difficulty of authenticating large leaked datasets — made harder by AI summaries and anonymous distribution — and the potential legal and political fallout if documents are confirmed true.