SOURCE: adamlevin.com
Brussels launched an official investigation into the hacking EU’s diplomatic communications network after more than 1,100 sensitive cables were made public, after the US cybersecurity company Area 1 provided them to the New York Times.
The EU’s secretariat said in response to the first report of the leak in the New York Times that it was “aware of allegations regarding a potential leak of sensitive information” and was “actively investigating the issue”.
According to Area 1, cited by the NYT, hackers managed to get all the passwords they needed to connect to the EU’s entire database of exchanges after a run-of-the-mill phishing attack aimed at diplomats in Cyprus granted them access to the nation’s systems.
“There was nothing sophisticated about this,” Area1 CEO Oren Falkowitz said. “After getting into the Cyprus system, the hackers had access to passwords that were needed to connect to the European Union’s entire database of exchanges.”
One of the company’s experts, Blake Darche, told the New York Times that “There is no doubt this campaign is connected to the Chinese government.” However, no evidence to back that claim has been presented.
In terms of sensitive data, the cables contain information expressing concerns of EU diplomats regarding the Russia-Ukraine situation, following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
A cable from February 8th, 2018, warns Crimea has become a “hot zone where nuclear warheads might have already been deployed.” A later on expressed concerns about Russia’s future activities in the Sea of Azov.
Another one gives a recap of the July summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, assessing them as “successful at least for Putin.”
According to a 20 July note, White House officials subsequently assured the EU that Trump’s agreement would be “nipped down”.
Trump was also described as “the greatest force driving Democratic enthusiasm to vote in November”.
There were numerous concerns regarding Trump, and difficulties of EU diplomats are having with building a relationship with the Trump administration over mounting disagreements over trade, climate and the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Another cable, written after a July 16 meeting, provided a detailed report and analysis of talks between European officials and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was quoted comparing Trump’s “bullying” of Beijing to a “no-rules freestyle boxing match.”
A cable, describing the same EU-China summit in Beijing in July this year, said that even Vladimir Putin was cited by Xi Jinping as being equally perplexed by Trump. “While Trump admired Putin, Putin saw Trump as an outlier.”
The account further quoted the Chinese president vowing that his country “would not submit to bullying” from the US, “even if a trade war hurt everybody”. “China was not a backward country anymore,” the European diplomat noted Xi as saying.
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The leaks mostly reveal the extent to which the EU and China alike are preoccupied with the tweets and disruptive instincts of Donald Trump; they even joke that they share a common enemy in the face of the US president.
Caroline Vicini, deputy head of the EU mission in Washington recommended in a March 7, 2018, cable that European diplomats work around the US President by dealing directly with Congress and emphasising individual member states’ interests on issues ranging from trade to renewable energy and Brexit.
Vicini also advised the trade bloc’s diplomats to describe the US as “our most important partner”, even as it challenged the Trump administration “in areas where we disagreed with the US (eg, on climate, trade, Iran nuclear deal)”.
The cables also in general revealed the EU bureaucracy as worried of China’s rapid rise, its rival influence in Africa and the possible role China is playing in undermining sanctions against North Korea. The threat posed by China to human rights worldwide and to EU influence in Africa is admirably recounted.
Generally, nothing too scandalous was leaked, most of the things contained in the alleged EU diplomat cables express things that most EU officials have outright already said.
Sorry but where the hell do the Chinese hackers come into this ?
“Brussels launched an official investigation into the hacking EU’s diplomatic communications network after more than 1,100 sensitive cables were made public, after the US cyber security company Area 1 provided them to the New York Times”.
Hey SF, I either missed a bit or you missed putting it in at the beginning of the story….I also think that this maybe a CIA / NSA hack against Trump.