Attackers broke into an email account of the CDU's Heilbronn branch and used it to send an event invitation link to roughly 6,500 contacts, including ministries and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a Heilbronn police spokesperson told dpa. The police said many recipients work in security-relevant roles and are treating it as phishing. As of heise's Oct 17 report, the police hadn't said what data the link was after or how the mailbox was taken over. heise points out that earlier this year Germany's BSI and domestic intelligence agency warned of a likely state-backed Signal phishing campaign against politicians, but nothing ties that campaign to this one so far.