Threat actor claims to have hacked European manufacturer of missiles MBDA

Threat actors that go online with the moniker Adrastea claim to have hacked the multinational manufacturer of missiles MBDA.

MBDA is a European multinational developer and manufacturer of missiles that was the result of the merger of the main French, British and Italian missile systems companies (Aérospatiale–Matra, BAE Systems, and Finmeccanica (now Leonardo). The name MBDA comes from the initialism of the names missile companies: Matra, BAe Dynamics and Alenia.

A threat actor that goes online with the moniker Adrastea, and that defines itself as a group of independent cybersecurity specialists and researchers, claims to have hacked MBDA.

Adrastea said that they have found critical vulnerabilities in the company infrastructure and have stolen 60 GB of confidential data.

The attackers said that the stolen data includes information about the employees of the company involved in military projects, commercial activities, contract agreements and correspondence with other companies.

“Hello! We are “Adrastea” – a group of independent specialists and researchers in the field of cybersecurity. We found critical vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure and gained access to the company’s files and confidential data. Currently, the volume of downloaded data is approximately 60 GB.” reads the adv published by the group on a popular hacker forum. “The downloaded data contains confidential and closed information about the employees of your company, which took part in the development of closed military projects of MBDA (PLANCTON, CRONOS, CA SIRIUS, EMADS, MCDS, B1NT etc.) and about the commercial activities of your company in the interests of the Ministry of Defense of the European Union (design documentation of the air defense, missile systems and systems of coastal protection, drawings, presentation , video and photo (3D) materials, contract agreements and correspondence with other companies Rampini Carlo, Netcomgroup, Rafael, Thales, ST Electronics etc.).”

As a proof of the hack Adrastea shared a link to a password-protected linked archive containing internal documents related to projects and correspondence.
At this time it is not clear if the threat actors have breached only one of the national divisions of the company, they did not disclose details about the attack.

Update: August 1 st, 2022

MBDA published the following press release confirming that its systems were not hacked. The origin of the data has already been ascertained, as they were acquired from an external hard drive. It has been confirmed that there has been no violation and / or compromise of the corporate networks. At present, the company’s internal verification processes indicate that the data that has been made available online are neither classified nor sensitive.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, MBDA)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.