The target of the cyber attack, which led to the entry into the network of a large array of secret documents of the North Atlantic Alliance, was the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Portugal.
According to European Pravda, the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias writes about this, citing sources.
According to the publication, the local government learned about the vulnerability of the Portuguese General Staff only after receiving a message from the United States through the embassy in Lisbon.
The Portuguese authorities consider the situation “extremely serious”. To solve it, the National Security Office, as well as special services and counterintelligence, are involved.
At a high-level NATO meeting next week, Portugal is expected to provide an explanation of how the information was leaked. It was preliminary established that the transfer of classified information took place in violation of security protocols.
“This cyberattack was extended over time and imperceptible: it was carried out through bots programmed to identify such documents, which were then seized in several stages,” one of the sources working in security structures said.
Sources in the Portuguese government, however, assure that the incident did not affect relations between Portugal and the Alliance allies.
Recall that at the end of August it became known that NATO is assessing the harm of the impact of a leak of secret military documents that a group of hackers sells online.
Cybercriminals operating on Russian and English forums are selling 80GB of stolen data for 15 bitcoins (about £273,000) and claim to have now sold the package to at least one unknown buyer.
In advertising for the stolen data, the hackers claim to have “secret information about employees of companies involved in the development of closed military projects,” as well as “design documentation, drawings, presentations, video and photographic materials, contract agreements and correspondence with other companies.”
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