The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is investigating claims that Russian hackers obtained and released hundreds of sensitive military documents on the dark web, the BBC reported.
The files reportedly contain details of eight Royal Air Force and Royal Navy bases, including sensitive sites such as RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, eastern England, which hosts US Air Force F-35 jets, as well as names and emails of MoD staff.
Suspects in the breach include the Russian hacking group Lynx, according to the Daily Mail.
The MoD confirmed it is actively investigating the incident but declined to provide further details, citing the need to protect operational information.
Dodd Group, a maintenance and construction contractor linked to some of the leaked data, confirmed it suffered a ransomware attack that temporarily allowed unauthorized access to part of its internal network.
According to the BBC, the company stated that it is taking the incident very seriously and has engaged an IT forensic firm to carry out a full investigation.
Data Breaches
The latest hack follows a series of data breaches affecting the UK in recent years.
Last year, the personal information of an unknown number of serving and former military personnel was compromised after a breach of a MoD payroll system, which included names and bank details.
In 2023, the MoD was fined $440,000 after accidentally exposing the personal details of 265 Afghans seeking to flee the Taliban.
The data breach occurred when hundreds of email addresses, including those of Afghan nationals eligible for relocation to the UK, were mistakenly placed in the “to” field instead of being blind copied.
In 2022, London investigated a hack targeting over 100 army recruits, reportedly carried out by a Russian actor aiming to identify potential assets within the British Army.
