Following Taurus leak, Bundeswehr issues a statement using 1234 as password
After the wiretapping incident in the German Air Force, journalists received a link to the press statement from the Federal Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, protected with the password 1234. It may be a weird joke, as the shared information is public.
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After the wiretapping incident in the German Air Force, journalists received a link to the press statement from the Federal Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, protected with the password 1234. It may be a weird joke, as the shared information is public.
A few days ago, Russian spies intercepted an unencrypted conference and recorded top German military officials discussing possible deliveries of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine and potential targets. The 38-minute audio file was leaked to the public via Russian state broadcaster RT.
On March 3rd, journalists in Germany received a link to a Bundeswehr press statement on intercepted Air Force communications.
The file was protected with one of the easiest passwords possible, which is 1234. It is even easier than the most commonly used password, which adds two subsequent numbers to the same sequence. Cybernews shared the most common password list in 2024. Users should obviously avoid weak passwords.
“But why, WHY does the Federal Ministry of Defense press office secure an audio statement from the Defense Minister on the Taurus wiretapping affair with the password “1234”? Is this some kind of inside joke, or did someone simply not feel like letting Nextcloud's own password generator do its work undisturbed after the ruined weekend on Monday?” Heise.de editorial team asked.
The invitation also includes an oversized banner, which also comes with some irony, as it says: “It is important to us to protect your data.”
The mystery continued further as clicking the link opened the Nextcloud file-sharing landing page, asking for login information and containing a weird message below, which is now deleted:
“s6 dev gru ⚔ b0rn 2 l33t,” Heise shared a copy.
This is written in leet, or leetspeak, which uses similar character replacements. However, the meaning is unclear. GRU may stand for Russian military intelligence service, but “dev gru” could also mean SEAL Team Six. The acronym “b0rn 2 l33t” resembles the ones Counter-Strike players used in the 90’s. It could be the signature of a soldier who is enthusiastic about eSports or something else.