The Hungarian opposition accuses constant computer attacks. “TISZA is targeted by cyber hackers clearly supported by Russian services”

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar accused authorities on Monday of illegally leaking the personal data of his supporters after a malware attack, reports AFP.

“Our systems have been under constant attack for months,” the leader of the Hungarian opposition, the favorite in polls for the 2026 legislative elections, said on Facebook, saying that “they are facing international networks that have an interest in keeping” the nationalist Viktor Orban in power, Agerpres reports citing AFP.

The outgoing prime minister's main opponent, conservative Peter Magyar, said his party's app, TISZA, was “since its launch the target of international cyber hackers, clearly supported by Russian services”.

How the government responds to Orban

The data leak was reported late last week by media close to the government, who claimed that a database of 200,000 names from TISZA's mobile app had been put online.

The list, which remained accessible for a short time before being pulled, allegedly contained user names, email and postal addresses, and account phone numbers.

According to Magyar, these activities aim to intimidate his sympathizers and prevent the organization of primary elections, scheduled to take place through the application, for the nomination of TISZA candidates in legislatures.

Voting will still go ahead, he said, but it will take place on a different website.

Those accusations were commented on by the government's Facebook, with Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, predicting on Monday that “the way” the opposition is handling “citizen data” is “revealing for how it would treat the country” if victorious.

Peter Magyar leads in the polls

Peter Magyar is leading in the polls less than six months before elections due in April, beating Viktor Orban, who has been in power for 15 years.

In 2021, the first primary election ever held by the opposition had to be suspended due to a cyber attack, possibly of foreign origin, according to the organizers.

When the Pegasus scandal broke, Hungary was the only EU country listed as a user of the Israeli spy software, targeting 300 phone numbers, according to an international media consortium.

Between 2023 and 2024, more than 40 independent Hungarian media were also victims of cyber attacks and a 23-year-old man was arrested in July as part of the investigation.