NATO Secrets Found For Sale On The Dark Web
Portugal’s Armed Forces Ministry has suffered a cyber attack that allegedly allowed the theft of classified NATO documents, which are now being sold on the Dark Web. The extent of the damage is still being investigated by the National Security Office, but suspicions are that a security breach facilitated the exfiltration of secret NATO documents from supposedly secure military computers.
According to sources, insecure channels were used to receive and forward the documents when the official Integrated System of Military Communications (SICOM) should have been used.
US intelligence agencies noticed the sale of stolen documents and alerted the US embassy in Lisbon, which in turn warned the Portuguese government about the data breach. “The exchange of information between allies in terms of information security is permanent at the bilateral and multilateral levels,” said a spokesperson for the Prime Minister. “Whenever there is a suspicion of compromise of cyber security of information system networks, the situation is extensively analysed and all procedures aimed at enhancing cyber security awareness and the correct handling of information to deal with new types of threat are implemented... Disciplinary and/or criminal law automatically determines the adoption of appropriate procedures."
The data leak comes after NATO claimed in late August that the bloc was investigating a hacking of missile firm MBDA by unknown malicious actors. According to media reports, the hackers had put blueprints of weapons used by Ukraine in its conflict with Russia on sale on the Dark Web.
This incident is not the first time that Portugal was involved in a security breach related to NATO documents. In 2018, Portuguese intelligence officer Frederico Carvalhao Gil was convicted for spying for Russia after he was found selling classified NATO and EU documents to a Russian agent.
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