Nato is assessing the impact of a data breach of classified military documents being vended by a hacker group online.
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MBDA Missile Systems is one of the largest weapons makers in the world | © BBC English |
The data includes arrangements of munitions being used by Nato allies in the Ukraine war. Felonious hackers are dealing the dossiers after stealing data linked to a major European arms maker. MBDA Missile Systems admitted its data was among the stockpile but claimed none of the classified lines belong to the establishment. Thepan-European company, which is headquartered in France, said its information was addressed from a compromised external hard drive, adding that it was cooperating with authorities in Italy, where the data breach took place. It's understood examinations are centred around one of MBDA's suppliers.
In a statement, a Nato spokesman said" We're assessing claims relating to data allegedly stolen from MBDA. We've no suggestion that any Nato network has been compromised."
Cyber culprits, operating on Russian and English forums, are dealing 80 GB of the stolen data for 15 Bitcoins( roughly£,000) and claimed to have sold the store to at least one unknown buyer so far.
In their announcement for the stolen data, the hackers claimed to have" classified information about workers of companies that took part in the development of closed military schemes" as well as" design documentation, sketches, presentations, Videos and pic stuff, contract agreements and correspondence with other companies".
A free 50 MB sample of the data, seen by the BBC, includes documents labelled" NATO secret"," NATO RESTRICTED" and" Unclassified Controlled Information".
In addition to the sample, the culprits supplied more documents by mail, including two marked" NATO SECRET".
Nato's Data classification ranks are
COSMIC TOP SECRET unauthorised exposure would create exceptionally grave damage to Nato
NATO SECRET unauthorised revelation would yield serious damage to Nato
NATO CONFIDENTIAL unauthorised exposure would be damaging to Nato interests
NATO confined unauthorised exposure would be inimical to the interests of Nato
Unclassified Controlled Information is a US security marker for information that's government created or possessed; information that requires securing or dispersion controls harmonious with applicable laws, regulations and government-wide programs
The hackers would not confirm whether or not the material had come from further than one addressed source.
The files, which the BBC has not been been capable to independently certify, detail a" communications intelligence" operation by a US air squadron carried out at the end of 2020 in Estonia over the Baltics.
It includes the call logs, full name, phone number and GPS equals of a person allegedly at the centre of the operation.
A former Nato officer said" There is a lot ofover-classification in Nato but these tags matter. They're applied by the originator of the information and NATO SECRET isn't applied effortlessly.
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