The Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras, refused this Friday to rule on “particular cases”, such as the issue of classified NATO documents, stressing that it is “an issue whose sensitivity” requires “prudence”.
NATO documents sent to Portugal were intercepted by hackers and put up for sale on the “dark web”
I am here on a visit to talk about cooperation between our countries, we have just signed a framework program in the field of defence, and I would not like to comment on other issues, that is to say yours, which is a subject whose sensitivity obliges us to have the greater prudence, and naturally I would not refer to particular cases,” Helena Carreiras told reporters in São Tomé.
The minister’s statement is in line with what was released this Thursday in a statement from the Ministry of Defense, in which it was stated in a general way that the guardianship investigates “all indications of a possible breach of computer security” and alleged the ” sensitivity” of those procedures involved so as not to comment specifically on the alleged leak of NATO documents.
“The Ministry of National Defense investigates any indication of a potential computer security breach. These actions are carried out in close coordination with the national entities responsible for cybersecurity,” reads the ministry’s statement released this Thursday.
The investigations, it is added, are in charge of the National Directorate of Security, “with which the Ministry of National Defense and the Armed Forces collaborate closely.”
Given the sensitivity of these processes”, the ministry headed by Helena Carreiras “does not rule on specific cases”.
According to the organic law of the National Security Office, this is “a central service of the direct administration of the State, endowed with administrative autonomy, depending on the President of the Government or the member of the Government to whom he delegates”.
The National Security Authority directs this office “and it is the entity that exclusively exercises the protection, control and safeguarding of confidential information.”
Among the functions of the National Security Office is “guaranteeing the security of classified information at the national level and of the international organizations of which Portugal is a part” and exercising “the function of accrediting natural or legal persons to access and manage classified information “.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces (EMGFA) was the subject of a “prolonged and unprecedented cyber attack”, which resulted in the exfiltration – unauthorized transfer of data from a certain closed computer system – of classified NATO documents, reported this Thursday the Diário de Notícias.
According to the same newspaper, the Portuguese government was informed by the US intelligence services, through the embassy in Lisbon, through a communication made directly to the Prime Minister, António Costa, last August.
East The case is considered “extremely serious” and it was the US intelligence cyber-spies who detected “hundreds of documents sent by NATO to Portugal for sale on the ‘darkweb’, classified as secret and confidential”.
Contacted by the Lusa agency on Thursday, the prime minister’s office, which is directly following this case, said that, for the moment, “there is nothing more to do” in relation to what it transmitted to Diário de Notícias about this case.
“The Government can guarantee that the Ministry of National Defense and the Armed Forces work daily so that the credibility of Portugal, as a founding member of the Atlantic Alliance, remains intact,” said a source from António Costa’s office.
It is also added that “the exchange of information between allies in matters of information security is permanent at the bilateral and multilateral level.”
“Whenever there is a suspicion of cybersecurity compromise of information system networks, the situation is extensively analyzed and all procedures aimed at strengthening cybersecurity awareness and the correct handling of information to face new types of threats are implemented. If and when a security compromise is confirmed, the subsequent investigation into whether there was disciplinary and/or criminal responsibility automatically determines the adoption of the appropriate procedures”, he added in the response given to Diário de Notícias.
Source: Observadora
