Hackers Intercepted EU Diplomatic Cables for 3 Years [bankinfosecurity]

23 Dec 2018

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For the past three years, hackers have been intercepting sensitive diplomatic cables sent between EU member states after stealing passwords for accessing the EU network via a phishing attack against diplomats in Cyprus, The New York Times reported late Tuesday.

The attack was discovered by Area 1, an anti-phishing firm based in Redwood City, California, that was founded in 2013 by three former National Security Agency officials. Area 1 researchers said that after hackers copied the cables off of a secure EU network, they had been posting them onto an open internet site, which was where the researchers found them. The company has shared more than 1,100 of the stolen EU cables with The New York Times.

Area 1 didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the Times report, which says the same group of hackers also appears to have penetrated more than 100 other institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations – better known as the AFL-CIO – as well as “ministries of foreign affairs and finance worldwide,” in some cases for years.

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