European Space Agency Confirms Limited Data Breach of Servers
TL;DR
- The European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed a breach of its external servers, with a hacker claiming to have stolen over 200GB of sensitive data including source code and API tokens. ESA states only a small number of external servers supporting unclassified activities were affected and is conducting a forensic analysis. This incident follows a previous hack of ESA's web shop and emphasizes the ongoing need for strong cybersecurity defenses.
European Space Agency Confirms Breach of External Servers
The European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed a security breach affecting its external servers. The agency is currently conducting a forensic analysis to assess the impact and secure affected devices.
ESA stated, "ESA is aware of a recent cybersecurity issue involving servers located outside the ESA corporate network. We have initiated a forensic security analysis—currently in progress—and implemented measures to secure any potentially affected devices," as stated on Tuesday. The agency clarified that the impacted servers support "unclassified collaborative engineering activities within the scientific community." More information can be found on their statement.
Details of the Breach
A threat actor claimed responsibility for the breach on the BreachForums hacking forum, alleging the theft of over 200GB of data from ESA's systems and private Bitbucket repositories. The actor leaked screenshots as proof of access to ESA's JIRA and Bitbucket servers for a week.
The stolen data allegedly includes:
- Source code
- CI/CD pipelines
- API tokens
- Access tokens
- Confidential documents
- Configuration files
- Terraform files
- SQL files
- Hardcoded credentials
The threat actor stated, "I've been connecting to some of their services for about a week now and have stolen over 200gb of data. Including dumping all their private Bitbucket repositories as well." More details on the claims can be found here.
ESA's Response and Impact Assessment
ESA has notified relevant stakeholders and is providing updates as more information becomes available. Their initial statement indicates that only a small number of external servers were impacted. SecurityWeek reported that the hacker offered to sell the stolen data.
According to ESA, "Our analysis so far indicates that only a very small number of external servers may have been impacted,” as per their statement on X. These servers support unclassified collaborative engineering activities. Further updates are expected as the forensic analysis progresses.
Previous Incidents
This is not the first security incident for ESA. Last year, their official web shop was hacked via malicious JavaScript code to steal customer payment information.
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