Global Security Breach:100 Embassies and governments hacked

Linus Larsson posted with authentication, this enticing news on Thursday,30th August 2007, in mobil.idg.se .

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Usernames and passwords for more than 100 e-mail accounts at embassies and governments worldwide have been posted online.

Using the information, anyone can access the accounts that have been compromised. Computer Sweden has verified the posted information and spoken to the person who posted them.

The posted information includes names of the embassies and governments, addresses to e-mail servers, usernames and passwords.Among the organisations on the list are the foreign ministry of Iran, the Kazakh and Indian embassies in the USA and the Russian embassy in Sweden.

Security consultant Dan Egerstad is the man responsible for posting the information. He speaks openly about the leak when Computer Sweden contacts him.

“I did an experiment and came across the information by accident”, he says. Dan Egerstad says he never used the information to log in to any of the compromised accounts in order not to break any laws.

Computer Sweden has been able to confirm that the login details for at least one of the accounts is correct.

Dan Egerstad forwarded an e-mail sent on the 20 august by an employee at the Swedish royal court to the Russian embassy. The person who sent the e-mail, in which she declines an invitation to the Russian embassy, has confirmed that she sent the e-mail.

“Yes, that is right. We did decline the invitation. As far as I can remember I did send the e-mail”, she says.

“When something like this happens you usually contact people and ask them to fix it. But in this case it felt too big for that, calling to other countries”, says Dan Egerstad.

Of the compromised account, ten belong to the Kazakh embassy in Russia. Around 40 belong to Uzbeki embassies and consulates around the world. The Indian and Russian embassies login details for e-mail accounts at the UK Visa office in Nepal was also posted. Login details for the foreign ministry of Iran, the Kazakh and Indian embassies in the USA and the Russian embassy in Sweden were also posted.

“I hope this makes them take action. Hopefully faster than ever before, and I hope they become a bit more aware of security issues,” Dan Egerstad says.

Computer Sweden has contacted both the Russian and Indian embassies in Stockholm for comment. Neither was aware of the leaked details, but declined to confirm the information and give comment.

Later on the same day and speaking to a reporter from Swedish television, the Russian embassy in Stockholm confirms that the leaked password was valid, but says it has now been changed.

Computer Sweden has not published where the login details can be found. The information in this story has been verified by Computer Sweden without using any of the published login details.

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