Technical breakdown in Baden-Württemberg: data from property owners was openly online

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View of the city of Lörrach

Photo: Björn Trotsky / IMAGO

Names and dates of birth of property owners in the Lörrach district could apparently be retrieved at times using a simple search engine query. As the district office reports on its website, the error has now been eliminated following a tip from the state data protection officer at the beginning of January. According to research by Südwestrundfunk (SWR), around 56,000 people and almost 1,000 companies were potentially affected by the breakdown.

The district office reported that the data that can be viewed in the meantime should only be available to cities and municipalities with password protection. However, an incorrect technical setting led to the password protection being deactivated. “Unfortunately, it is not yet clear how this incorrect setting came about and how long it existed.” It is unclear whether data actually flowed from the so-called geo-portal.

“The district office cannot currently see any direct need for action for the affected owners,” the authority said. At the same time, however, it cannot be ruled out that data would be used for attempted fraud. »You should always be careful with unknown callers who have knowledge of this data. This also applies to email contact.«

The first indications were already in mid-October

According to the district office, data could also be viewed in another application of the geo-portal, in this case the reporting portal for heavy rain and erosion events and e-mail and, in some cases, postal addresses. The district office said the affected portal has now been taken offline and 15 people affected by the breakdown have been informed.

As a spokesman for the state data protection officer Tobias Keber announced on Wednesday, there were first indications of a possible data breach as early as mid-October. Initially it was about the reporting portal for heavy rain and erosion events. At the beginning of November, there were indications that data might have been published inadvertently in the geoinformation system.

In view of the breakdown, the Lörrach SPD member of the state parliament, Jonas Hoffmann, called for nationwide standards that regulate access to data and automatically document it. In Germany, each authority usually manages its own data. “There is a lack of binding standards for access to data and money for IT security at all administrative levels,” complained the parliamentarian.

mbö/dpa