The theft of 18 million email addresses and passwords appears to be the largest data theft in German.
As reported, the compromised accounts have been exploited by online criminals to spread spam emails.
Authorities have confirmed that at least three million compromised accounts belong to German citizens (the accounts end in “.de”), while the others have the international domain extension such as “.com”.
The number of Germans and citizens of other countries affected by the massive data breach has not yet been confirmed.
A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office says that, at present, it has been determined that hackers have gained access to 18 million accounts.
It is the second largest data theft in Germany this year. In January, German authorities announced that hackers had gained access to 16 million email addresses and passwords.
