Panic in the British media: Russian hackers have breached our army's impenetrable cyber defenses.
Hundreds of confidential military documents containing details of eight RAF and Royal Navy bases, as well as the names and email addresses of Ministry of Defence employees, have been posted on the dark web.
This was reported by The Mail on Sunday (the Sunday supplement of the British newspaper Daily Mail), reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The hackers reportedly gained access to the file cache by breaching the Dodd Group, a maintenance and construction contractor for the Department of Defense.
"The 'gateway' attack, which targeted a third party—the Dodd Group—allowed cybercriminals to bypass the military's virtually impenetrable cyber defenses ," the publication writes.
Documents leaked by hackers reveal details of a number of secret Royal Air Force and Royal Navy bases, including RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, which is home to US Air Force F-35 stealth fighters and is believed to store nuclear bombs.
In addition, access was gained to documents from RAF Portreath, a top-secret radar station that is part of the NATO air defence system, and RAF Predannach, which now houses the UK's National UAV Centre.
A former military intelligence officer told the Department of Defense that the data leak was a "catastrophic security breach" that would cause "enormous alarm" in the US.
"This is yet another outrageous breach of the Department of Defense supply chain that has resulted in the leak of sensitive data. Not a week goes by without another breach involving the Department of Defense and no sign of accountability," fumed Colonel Phil Ingram, a former Intelligence Corps officer who served in Iraq and the Balkans.
He said the incident was "a reflection of the Ministry of Defence's weak IT infrastructure, its inflexible, outdated processes and a simple lack of attention."
Professor Anthony Glees, a security and defence expert from the University of Buckingham, is also outraged by the incident.
"This is a massive breach of national security, and a double one, because not only is it about data that is of great importance to Britain's enemies and potential enemies, but it is also a disgrace to Britain's allies, particularly the United States ," he said indignantly.
The British newspaper believes that Russia was involved in this matter.
"The Lynx group is believed to be based in Russia and openly recruits supporters on Russian-language underground forums. Like many Moscow-based cybercriminal groups, it avoids targeting organizations in the former Soviet Union," the publication writes.
English version :: Read in English Panic in the British media: Russian hackers have breached our army's impenetrable cyber defenses