‘Thousands’ of EU diplomatic cables hacked: Report

Hackers apparently connected to China accessed thousands of sensitive EU diplomatic cables, the New York Times reported yesterday, in the latest embarrassing data breach to hit a major international organisation.

The cables from the EU's diplomatic missions around the world reveal anxiety about how to handle US President Donald Trump as well as concerns about China, Russia and Iran.

The leak, discovered by cybersecurity firm Area 1, recalls the publication by Wikileaks of a vast haul of US State Department cables in 2010, though in the EU case the trove is much smaller and consists of less secret communications, the NYT reported.

In one cable, the EU's diplomatic mission in Moscow describes the controversial summit in Helsinki in July between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as "successful (at least for Putin)".

Another gives a detailed account of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which he rails against Trump's trade tactics, saying the US was "behaving as if it was fighting in a no-rules freestyle boxing match" and vowing not to give in to "bullying".

There are extensive reports on the situation in Ukraine, where a conflict rumbles on between government forces and pro-Russian separatists, including a warning dating from February that Moscow may already have deployed nuclear warheads in Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

 

Thousands of EU diplomatic cables hacked: Report

Hackers apparently connected to China accessed thousands of sensitive EU diplomatic cables, the New York Times reported yesterday, in the latest embarrassing data breach to hit a major international organisation. The cables from the EUs diplomatic missions around the world reveal anxiety about how to handle US President Donald Trump as well as concerns about China, Russia and Iran. The leak, discovered by cybersecurity firm Area 1, recalls the publication by Wikileaks of a vast haul of US State Department cables in 2010, though in the EU case the trove is much smaller and consists of less secret communications, the NYT reported. In one cable, the EUs diplomatic mission in Moscow describes the controversial summit in Helsinki in July between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as successful (at least for Putin). Another gives a detailed account of a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which he rails against Trumps trade tactics, saying the US was behaving as if it was fighting in a no-rules freestyle boxing match and vowing not to give in to bullying. There are extensive reports on the situation in Ukraine, where a conflict rumbles on between government forces and pro-Russian separatists, including a warning dating from February that Moscow may already have deployed nuclear warheads in Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.