Spam attack disables email accounts of Left Party lawmakers in Germany

A spam-bombing attack disabled email accounts belonging to Left Party lawmakers in Germany’s Bundestag, the national parliament.

The accounts were flooded with thousands of emails from different senders, with varied subject lines and in several languages.

Only Left Party lawmakers were affected; other parties were not.

The wider Bundestag email system experienced delays, but its servers had enough capacity to keep operating.

Lawmakers received instructions on filtering the messages, and Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security was brought in.

The email attack was separate from spyware warnings Apple had sent to some German lawmakers and other public figures, which involved a different possible threat to individual devices.

The sources do not say who was behind the email attack or what further action will follow.