NATO Secret Missile Data Found On The Dark Web

NATO is urgently investigating a data leak, including blueprints of sophisticated weapons, that have evidently been stolen for European missile systems firm MBDA.  In August, the French missile producer acknowledged that it had been the subject of a blackmail attempt purported by a criminal group and hackers have placed the stolen data for sale on the Dark Web. 

MBDA confirms that the data for sale does belong to them and that the breach appears to have been in the form of a ransomware attack. They say the stolen data was acquired from a compromised external hard drive, rather than internal networks. It is understood investigations are centered on one of MBDA's suppliers.

MBDA Missile Systems headquarters are located in France and sells weapons to several different NATO countries.  Last year it posted revenue of £3.5bn and counts the British Ministry of Defence, the US military and NATO as customers for its weapons systems. The company was created in December 2001 after the merger of missile systems companies in France, Italy and the UK and is the world’s second largest manufacturer of missiles. The company has manufacturing plants in France, Italy, Britain, and Spain and employs over 13,000 people.

MBDA has three main product lines: air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, and surface-to-air missiles. Its products are used by the militaries of more than 40 countries. 

MBDA was the subject of a blackmail attempt by a criminal group that falsely claims to have hacked the company’s information networks. Following the company’s refusal to yield to this blackmail threat and pay a ransom demand, the criminal group has spread information on the Internet, making it accessible for a payment. This failed ransom attempt is the subject of an investigation by the Italian security agencies.

The company refused to submit to a ransom demand and the alleged non-classified information was subsequently leaked online. The data for sale on both Russian and English-language forums and consists of 80GB and is currently listed for 15 bitcoins, worth around $300,000. The cyber criminals are understood to have already sold the data to at least one buyer.

MBDA Systems:     Oodaloop:   Dark Reading:   BBC:    Hackread:  Fortune: 

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