European missile maker MBDA has publicly denied some of the hacking allegations against the company made on a dark web forum in July and posted on Twitter by Today Cyber News on Tuesday.
The self-proclaimed hacking group who first made the allegation went under the name “Andrastea,” and claimed to have obtained roughly 60 GB of data from MBDA and then put it for sale on the dark web after breaking into MBDA’s systems.
According to Andrastea, the group would have managed to obtain files describing military projects, alongside information related to commercial activities, contracts, and messages exchanged with other companies, among other things.
MBDA is now refuting these claims, in a series of blog posts (in different languages) published on Monday.
“MBDA is refuting the alleged ‘hacking’ of the company’s information systems, and has filed a report with police of an attempt to blackmail the company,” read one of the posts.
“Following the company’s refusal to yield to this blackmail threat and pay a ransom demand, the criminal group has spread information on the internet, making it accessible for a payment.”
Specifically, the company clarifies that while some files were indeed stolen, the company was not hacked and its security systems remain intact, as the company has “state-of-the-art cyber protection systems” in place to face these kinds of criminal activity.
“The origin of the data has already been ascertained, having been acquired from an external hard drive,” MBDA wrote.
“It has been confirmed that no hacking of the company’s secure networks has occurred. So far, the company’s internal verification processes indicate that the data made available online are neither classified data nor sensitive.”
Further, MBDA said the Italian national authorities are currently investigating the matter, and the company said it is supporting their efforts.
“The company will take all possible legal actions in the face of what is a criminal act of blackmail."