The Public Ministry opened an investigation on Tuesday linked to the cyberattack against the General Staff of the Armed Forces in which classified NATO documents were extracted and put up for sale in the darkwebindicated the Attorney General of the Republic.
“The investigation is confirmed. It is directed by the Public Ministry of the Central Directorate of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP)”specified the Attorney General’s Office, in response to the Lusa agency.
According to Diário de Notícias last week, the Portuguese government was informed of the situation by the US intelligence services, through the embassy in Lisbon, through a communication made directly to the Prime Minister, António Costa, last August. .
The same newspaper mentioned that this case is considered “extremely serious” and that it was US cyberspies who detected “for sale in dark spider web hundreds of documents sent by NATO to Portugal, classified as secret and confidential”.
At that time, the Ministry of National Defense stated that it was already investigating “all indications of a possible violation of computer security” and claimed the “sensitivity” of those processes for not commenting on the alleged exfiltration of NATO documents.
In a statement, he added that the investigations are being carried out by the National Security Directorate, “with which the Ministry of National Defense and the Armed Forces work in close coordination.”
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 “.
Source: Observadora
