The Department of Foreign Affairs has announced that it is investigation a potential cybersecurity breach.
According to the Department, it was notified by Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) yesterday about a possible security incident, which is now being investigated by both organisations “working closely” together to determine its authenticity.
“At this point, there is no evidence of any breach of DFA ICT security infrastructure,” the Department said in a statement.
“The Department, in conjunction with the NCSC, will continue its investigation and, should any breach be identified, will address any issues that arise around information held by the Department.”
Fine Gael Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said that there is no evidence of any breaches of any ICT systems thus far, but that caution was a prudent approach.
“It is right and proper that a hyper-vigilant approach is taken to any potential breaches given the age and geopolitical times in which we live,” he said.
Notably, an online ransomware group, Mogilevich, has claimed that it is in possession of 7GB of compromised data from the Department of Foreign Affairs, and that they are willing to sell it.
The hacker group also claimed to have hacked videogame company Epic Games, known for creating Fortnite, alleging to have stolen 189GB of data from the developer. However, Epic Games says there is “zero evidence” currently that these claims are legitimate.
When we saw these allegations, which were a screenshot of a darkweb webpage in a Tweet, we investigated within minutes and reached out to Mogilevich for proof. Mogilevich has not responded.
We’ll keep investigating.
— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) February 28, 2024