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User Security
Data Breach Ministry of Defense Sensitive data Leaked United Kingdom User Privacy User Security

A Second Data Breach at the Ministry of Defence has been Discovered

 

The email addresses of dozens more Afghans who may be eligible for relocation in the United Kingdom have been exposed in a second data leak by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), putting their safety in jeopardy. According to the BBC, the newest mishap had MoD staff accidentally copying 55 people into an email, making their personal information exposed to all recipients. 

According to the BBC, the recipients, at least one of whom is a member of the Afghan national army, were told that relocation officials in the UK had been unable to contact them and that they needed to update their information. 

The MoD's Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) team, according to a spokesperson, was "aware" of the error, which occurred earlier this month. “Steps have now been taken to ensure this does not happen in the future. We apologize to those affected and extra support is being offered to them,” the spokesperson said. “This week, the defence secretary instigated an investigation into data handling within that team.”

Officials from the Ministry of Defence have contacted those affected and offered advice on how to minimize the potential hazards. 

It comes just a day after the defence secretary issued an apology for a second breach affecting the email addresses of dozens of Afghan interpreters working for British forces. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in the House of Commons on Tuesday that thousands of members of the armed services and veterans had been let down by "an unacceptable level of service."

Ben informed lawmakers on Tuesday that mechanisms for "data handling and communication processing" had already been modified. According to BBC, who cited defence officials, Wallace was unaware of the second MoD breach when he made those remarks. 

Former Conservative defence minister Johnny Mercer, who fought in Afghanistan, expressed concern that similar situations could occur again. He said: “I’ve been concerned from the start as to how these individuals have been treated – the whole thing was such a rush to the door when Kabul fell that these mistakes were inevitable. I personally think we’ve taken out people we really shouldn’t have, and failed to bring out the majority of those we should – I think we are only beginning to learn the scale of what has gone on here.”
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Technology News
Lithuania Ministry of Defense Russia Technology Technology News

Lithuania accused the Russian media of misinformation


Lithuania has published an annual report submitted by the Ministry of Defense, in which it accused the Russian media of misinformation.

According to Lithuanian experts, the number of complex cyberattacks in the Baltic Republic has increased, which were more advanced both in terms of technological solutions and in terms of content.

According to them, some Russian publications form a negative image of Lithuania, and its image is not true.

The Ministry noted that the image of Lithuania as a hostile and unreliable state is being created. Russian Media uses content that incites war and national hatred, as well as falsified facts, video editing, and deliberately distorted statements.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the flow of such information increases during significant events in foreign policy and within the country in order to form a negative image of Lithuania in the West.

It should be noted that Russian journalists are regularly hindered from performing their professional duties in the Baltic States. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russian media in the Baltic States are being persecuted for historical truth.

It is interesting to add that on April 16, Lithuanian Vice Minister of Defense Edwinas Kerza stated that the routers used in Lithuania to distribute wireless Internet are made not in China, but in Russia, and send user data to servers in the Russian Federation.

"They were common, and still widely distributed, because they are budget-class routers that are quite productive, that is, fast and inexpensive… And as we have established, although they were supposed to be produced in Taiwan, they are actually produced in Russia," said Kerza.

It is reported that the model that attracted such close attention to the Lithuanian military has already been removed from the sale. The security services are concerned that, according to the Vice Minister, up to 90% of routers in the country are of Russian origin, and potentially spy on Lithuanian citizens.
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Ministry of Defense
Cyber Crime Cyber Weapons Hacking Japan malware Ministry of Defense

A Defensive Malware On The Cyber To-Do List of Japanese Government




Japanese government likes to stay ahead of disasters, be it natural or for that matter, cyber-crime related.

In the same spirit Japan’s Defense Ministry has decided to create and maintain cyber-weapons in the form of “Malware”.

The malware is all set to contain viruses and backdoors and would be the first ever cyber-weapon of Japan’s.

According to sources, it will be fabricated not by government employees but professional contractors tentatively by the end of this fiscal year.

The capabilities and the purpose or the way of usage hasn’t been out in the open yet.



Reports have it that the malware is just a precautionary measure against the attacker if in case the Japanese institutions are ever under attack.

As it turns out the malware is one of the endeavors of the Japanese government towards modernizing and countering China’s growing military threat.

The country also plans on widely expanding its reach into cyber battlefield (which is now an actual battle field) tactics.

Many major countries ambiguously have been using cyber weapons and now Japan’s next on the list.

The country’s government believes, being cyber ready and holding a major cyber-weapon in hand would keep countries that wish to attack at bay.

But as it turns out, this tactic hasn’t fared well with other countries as much as they’d like to believe.

This happens to be the second attempt at creating a cyber-weapon stash after 2012 which didn’t bear results like it should’ve.

Earlier this year the Japanese government passed a legislation allowing the National Institute of Information Communications Technology to hack into the citizens’ IoT devices using default or weak credentials during a survey of insecure Iot devices.

All this was planned to secure the Iot devices before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to avoid Olympic Destroyer and attacks like VPNFilter.

So it turns out, that these efforts at strengthening the cyber game of Japan’s originate from the chief of Japan’s Cyber-security department who happens to not even OWN or USE a computer.
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