Russia-linked hackers breached 27 email accounts at Greek military headquarters

Russia-linked hackers compromised 27 email inboxes managed by Hellenic National Defense General Staff, Greece’s top subject body, according to information reviewed by Reuters.

Among those hacked were Greek defence attaches successful India and Bosnia and the public-facing inbox for Greece’s Joint Armed Forces Mental Health Center.

The information was inadvertently exposed to the nett by the hackers and discovered by Ctrl-Alt-Intel, a corporate of British and American cyber menace researchers, which archetypal described it past period successful a blog post.

The General Staff did not reply to a elaborate database of questions connected the hacking submitted by Reuters.

The hackers besides broke into much than 170 email accounts belonging to prosecutors and investigators crossed Ukraine during the past respective months, successful a run that shows however Moscow’s spies are keeping tabs connected the Ukrainian officials tasked with rooting retired corruption and Russian ‌collaborators.

Most of the victims were successful Ukraine; others are from neighboring NATO countries and the Balkans.

Ctrl-Alt-Intel said the mistake provided a uncommon accidental to analyse the workings of a Russian espionage campaign.

The hackers “just made a immense operational blunder,” Ctrl-Alt-Intel ⁠said. “They near their beforehand doorway wide open.”

The Russian embassy successful Washington did not respond to requests for comment. Moscow has repeatedly denied it engages successful hacking operations against different countries.

Ctrl-Alt-Intel attributed the hacking run to “Fancy Bear,” 1 of the nicknames assigned to a well-known Russian subject hacking squad. Two researchers who independently reviewed Ctrl-Alt-Intel’s work – Matthieu Faou, with the cybersecurity institution ESET, and Feike Hacquebord, with the cybersecurity institution TrendAI – agreed the hackers were tied to Moscow. However, Faou said helium could not verify Fancy Bear was involved, and Hacquebord disputed Fancy Bear’s involvement.

The hack uncovered by Ctrl-Alt-Intel represents “a small acceptable of enactment ⁠in regards to the whole Russia-aligned espionage ecosystem,” said Faou, the ESET researcher.

Scores of officials successful surrounding NATO countries were besides hacked, the information shows.

In Romania, the hackers compromised astatine slightest 67 email accounts maintained by the Romanian Air Force, including respective ⁠belonging to NATO airbases and astatine slightest 1 elder subject officer. The Romanian Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.

In Bulgaria, the hackers broke into astatine slightest 4 inboxes belonging to section officials successful Plovdiv province, where Russian interference was alleged to person disabled outer navigation services up of a visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen past year. Bulgarian officials did not respond to remark requests.

The information besides shows the spies hacked academics and subject officials successful Serbia, a traditional Russian ally. Serbia’s Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.

“A supposedly adjacent narration with Moscow is nary security against Russian espionage,” Giles said. [Reuters]