Investigation of former IT employees in the state capital Dresden due to unauthorized storage of approximately 270,000 files, including directories of election notices, has been terminated. The 55-year-old man assured that he never used the data outside of work and never gave it to third parties, the public prosecutor said.
He also did not make further copies and destroyed the data. According to information, the man cited stress-related failures as the reason for keeping the files, which he could not explain in more detail.
There is no evidence of data sharing
This information cannot be refuted based on the results of an in-depth examination, as announced by the public prosecutor. In particular, investigators can understand the full extent of the data deletion. There is no indication that the data will be passed on. The prosecutor’s office could not prove that the 55-year-old man was involved in criminal behavior. Saxon’s data protection officer is now responsible for prosecuting any administrative violations.
The prosecutor’s office and the Dresden police department investigated the man on suspicion of violating Saxony’s Data Protection Implementation Act. He worked as a systems administrator at the city’s IT services company, including in the civic office.
Data from 430,000 eligible voters is stored
From May to mid-October 2024, he is said to have illegally connected external personal storage media to the city’s authorized IT technology and transferred a total of approximately 270,000 files. He is also said to have kept a directory of election notifications complete with the names, addresses and birth dates of around 430,000 Dresden residents who were eligible to vote externally.
The state capital discovered alleged data protection violations during a routine audit of its IT company’s handling of data, as stated in a statement in November last year. The city government fired the IT technician and banned him from entering the building.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251118-930-309188/1
