Hackers linked to Russia have compromised 27 emails managed by the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, Greece's highest military institution, according to data reviewed by Reuters.
Among those hacked were Greek military attaches in India and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a public email address of the Hellenic Joint Armed Forces Mental Health Center.
The data was inadvertently exposed online by the hackers themselves and was discovered by Ctrl-Alt-Intel, a collective of British and American cyber threat researchers, who first described it last month in a blog post.
The General Staff did not respond to a detailed list of questions about the cyberattack submitted by Reuters.
Hackers also broke into more than 170 email accounts belonging to prosecutors and investigators in Ukraine in recent months, in a campaign that shows how Russian intelligence services are monitoring Ukrainian officials involved in fighting corruption and Russian collaborators.
Most of the victims were in Ukraine; others came from neighboring NATO countries and the Balkans.
Ctrl-Alt-Intel said the hackers' mistake created a rare opportunity to analyze how a Russian espionage campaign operates.
“The hackers made a major operational error,” the group said. “They left the front door open.”
The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. Moscow has consistently denied involvement in hacking operations against other countries, writes ekathimerini.
Ctrl-Alt-Intel attributed the hacking campaign to the group “Fancy Bear,” one of the names for a known Russian military hacking team. Two researchers who independently analyzed the group’s work — Matthieu Faou of ESET and Feike Hacquebord of TrendAI — agreed that the hackers had ties to Moscow. However, Faou said he could not verify Fancy Bear’s involvement, while Hacquebord disputed that.
The detected attack represents "a small part of the activity within the broader ecosystem of espionage linked to Russia," Faou said.
The data also shows that dozens of officials in other NATO countries have been hacked.
In Romania, hackers compromised at least 67 Romanian Air Force email accounts, including several belonging to NATO air bases and at least one senior military officer. Romania's Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
In Bulgaria, hackers broke into at least four accounts belonging to local officials in Plovdiv province, where Russian interference is suspected of disabling satellite navigation services ahead of a visit by Ursula von der Leyen last year. Bulgarian officials did not comment.
The data also shows that spies have hacked academics and military officials in Serbia, a traditional ally of Russia. Serbia's Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
“A supposedly close relationship with Moscow is no guarantee against Russian espionage,” one quoted expert said.
