Attackers Are Selling Secret NATO Documents Stolen from the Portuguese Military on the Dark Web

According to media reports, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Portugal was subjected to a hacker attack, during which the attackers managed to steal secret NATO documents. The stolen data is now up for sale on the dark web.

The cyberattack on the country’s General Staff was reported by the local newspaper Diário de Notícias. Referring to their own sources, the journalists write that the General Staff learned about the attack after the hackers published samples of the stolen data on the darknet, saying that they would sell the full dump to interested parties.

The fact is that the American cyber intelligence agents were first to pay attention to the proposal to sell secret data and notified the US embassy in Lisbon about their discovery. Next, the diplomats had already warned the Portuguese government about the leak. Currently, experts from the Office of National Security and the National Center for Cyber Security of Portugal are investigating the incident.

The same sources told the publication that the leaked documents are “extremely serious” and their distribution could provoke a real crisis of confidence in Portugal in NATO.

Local media noted that the news of this leak surprised many members of Parliament, who do not understand why secret military data is being sold on the Internet, and the country’s intelligence services were not able to detect such a serious violation in time.