Portugal’s army was set on high alert as sensitive documents related to NATO were stolen and being sold on the dark web from the past two days. Information is out that The Armed Forces General Staff Agency of Portugal (EMGFA) suffered a cyber attack last month and since it failed to pay a ransom, the threat actors sold the details online.
Sources revealed EMGFA lost data related to control, planning and operations, Portugal armed forces and some sensitive files related to NATO.
Hackers posted a portion of data on the dark web to threat the victim to the core and a spy from US Intelligence posed as a customer to buy and analyze few data samples to confirm the information as true.
The spy immediately informed the US Embassy in Lisbon and the Portuguese government about the data breach prompted the government to initiate the National Security Office (GNS) and National Cybersecurity Centre of Portugal to investigate deeply.
News resource Diario De Noticias confirmed the validity of the information and added that the data was related to military alliance.
Details such as why the hackers were interested in Portugal’s army documents and NATO’s sensitive data are yet to be ascertained. Some sources state that the activity could have been triggered by Russian servers or a hacking group that was being funded by Russia.
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