German MPs and their staff fail simple phishing attack test

Bundestag building
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The Bundestag, the lower house of the German congress, conducted a secret penetration test (pen test) against members of parliament by sending phishing emails that supposedly came from the Bundestag administration. While many MPs and their staff members passed the test, Spiegel (machine translated) says that several fell for the faked email and disclosed sensitive information like usernames and passwords.

All representatives and their staff eventually received a letter explaining the penetration test, saying, “This is absolutely necessary for an effective defense against real phishing campaigns.” However, it also added, “I would like to ask all those who have clicked on the links in the e-mails and, if necessary, entered login credentials and passwords to change their password as a precautionary measure.”

Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

  • domih
    The link in: "While many MPs and their staff members passed the test, Spiegel (machine translated) says that several fell for the faked email and disclosed sensitive information like usernames and passwords..." is incorrect. It leads to an unrelated apnews.com article.
    Reply