European missile developer and manufacturer says hackers tried to blackmail the company with non-sensitive information obtained from an external hard drive.
A group calling themselves Adrastea (Andrastea) says they took 60 GB of files from MBDA, including secret information on the company’s involvement in ‘closed military projects.’
MBDA, however, denies Adrastea hacked the company’s internal systems. However, the MBDA spokesman told Cybernews that threat actors demanded ransom from the company’s branch in Italy.
“Following the company’s refusal to yield to this blackmail threat and pay a ransom demand, the criminal group has spread information on the internet, making it accessible for a payment,” MBDA’s spokesman told Cybernews.
MBDA has contacted Italian authorities to investigate the attack, and the company said it will take legal action against what it sees as a ‘criminal act of blackmail.’
Even though MBDA says its internal systems were not breached, the company admits threat actors accessed non-sensitive data from an external hard drive.
“The origin of the data has already been ascertained, having been acquired from an external hard drive. It has been confirmed that no hacking of the company’s secure networks has occurred. So far, the company’s internal verification processes indicate that the data made available online are neither classified data nor sensitive,” the spokesman said.
The company added that it has ‘state-of-the-art cyber protection systems to combat threat actors trying to access its internal systems.
MBDA is a European developer and manufacturer of missiles. The four letters in the name represent three French, Italian and British companies that merged to become the MBDA, French firm Matra, UK’s BAe Dynamics, and Italy’s Alenia.
Adrastea’s announcement about the leak on a popular Russian-speaking hacker forum, XSS, implied that threat actors had accessed the Italian branch of MBDA and stole documents related to the company’s cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Defense.
Threat actors said they had downloaded design documentation of the air defense, missile systems, and coastal protection systems, presentations, correspondence with other defense contractors, and other sensitive information.
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