European Space Agency Confirms Scientific Data Hacked

Illustration of data leakage (Doc. unsplash) 

JAKARTA - The European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed that its digital infrastructure was hacked. Initial investigations indicate that this data hacking attacked a number of science servers.

The news of the hack was first reported by an account named seblatombe on X, formerly known as Twitter, on December 26. In the post, it was known that hackers were using the alias name 888.

The hacker admitted that he had stolen 200GB of data and wanted to sell it. In line with this theft, sensitive project documents and corporate access credentials were leaked to the public.

ESA has conducted forensic analysis to find out how big the impact of this hacking was. For now, the affected servers are known to still be outside the company's main network.

The compromised facilities are typically used for non-confidential engineering collaboration. However, ESA is still taking serious action to protect their scientific community data.

"At this stage, forensics have identified a small number of science servers that may have been affected," an ESA representative said in a statement, quoted on Wednesday, December 31.

ESA has made short-term repairs to secure other devices that could be hacked. Stakeholders have also received reports of hacking that has occurred.

The forensic analysis process will continue to be continued to ensure that its security has been thoroughly strengthened. ESA said that they will provide information updates after the analysis is completed.