Category: MoD

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has recently made headlines after it was revealed that over 560 staff members’ passwords were exposed on the dark web, triggering widespread concern within Parliament.

The breach is believed to be the work of hackers, possibly linked to Russian military intelligence, who are known for targeting foreign government networks. Sources familiar with the situation suggest that the hack may have compromised sensitive information, including military and civilian data, as well as that of defense contractors. The leaked information reportedly includes login credentials, email addresses tied to the Defense Gateway portal—a platform used by the British military to exchange classified data.

An anonymous source on Telegram indicated that the attack likely occurred in September, but the details have only recently surfaced. This source also mentioned that the breach includes classified data such as human resources information, personnel salaries, and medical records for military personnel and their families stationed in regions like Iraq, Cyprus, Mainland Europe, and Qatar. Additionally, some research and development communications shared over the internal network are believed to have been exposed.

The leak of such sensitive credentials could open the door to threats like phishing, blackmail, and further cyberattacks by state-sponsored actors. These could involve infiltrating networks with surveillance tools or malware, disrupting operations and compromising security.

According to reports from Cybersecurity Insiders, while the hackers have obtained the passwords, there is no evidence yet that they have used them to access the network. Fortunately, incident response teams have acted quickly to mitigate the damage, resetting passwords and implementing necessary security measures to protect the network.

The MoD has acknowledged the breach and confirmed it is working alongside the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the cyber division of Britain’s GCHQ, to investigate the incident thoroughly.

The post UK Ministry of Defense MoD passwords leaked on Dark Web appeared first on Cybersecurity Insiders.

The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been fined £350,000 for recklessly causing a data breach that exposed the personal details of citizens of Afghanistan who were seeking to flee the country after the Taliban took control in 2021. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

UK’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has released a press statement that few of its servers might have been compromised by hackers believed to be working for the Russian government. The suspicion finger pointed out towards Kremlin as the cyber crooks stolen classical data related to 100 British Army recruits who were working in other nations as spies.

News is out that the activity was conducted in January this year when a Russian agent infiltrated a database belonging to MoD and stole critical information.

Details of the hack were detected in the first week of April 2022 while the IT staff was going through a routine security check.

As of now, hacked details of only 124 spies were found to be stolen from an outsourcing firm named Capita and the numbers might increase as the investigation unfolds the mystery on a further note.

The data steal was discovered when a hacking group was trying to sell information related to 9 spies on the dark web while promoting the activity on Twitter.

Information Commissioner’s Office has taken a note of the situation and is assured to react after a detailed investigation report is submitted to it.

Tory MP Mark Francois tagged the data breach as extremely concerning for the government and entire nation, as data leaks could put the lives of the on-duty spies working for the nation and their families in extreme danger.

Cybersecurity Insiders have learnt that hackers got their hands on the details such as addresses, DoBs, qualifications, employment history, full names and family details.

Note- Capita is handed over £3 billion worth of business every year by governments and private entities and from the past three years received £900m as contract amount with the MoD to run Army Recruitment.

 

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