The Left Bloc expressed concern on Thursday over the cyberattack that led to the exfiltration of secret NATO documents, in hopes that the government will provide the country with clarifications before an eventual visit to parliament.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, Deputy Joana Mortágua said she had received the news this Thursday from the News diary “with astonishment and concern”.
“Concerns above all about transparency and trust in all these processes involving, of course, documents that could be important and also jeopardize Portugal’s international image”said the deputy.
The blocker also expressed concern about: “the idea that the EMGFA [Estado-Maior-General das Forças Armadas] could be susceptible to hacker attacks, which in itself is a worrying idea, especially given that the information was later put up for sale on the dark web”.
“There are some issues here that we think need to be cleared up by the government. It should be kept in mind that what is known so far is that the government had information about this information leak, this computer attack, and it has clarifications not carried out to the country”he emphasized.
In this sense, BE expects the supervisor to say: “what happened, what measures did you take” and how it tackled the issue politically, before an eventual trip to parliament – after PSD, IL and Chega had already made requests in this regard, which BE will “follow up”.
“It would seem strange to us that [esses esclarecimentos] come only when the members of the government go to parliament, we believe that the government owes the country an explanation for that”wrinkled.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces (EMGFA) was the target of a “prolonged and unprecedented cyber attack”that resulted in the exfiltration — unauthorized transfer of data from a particular closed computer system — of classified NATO documents, the News diary.
According to the same newspaper, the Portuguese government was informed by the US intelligence services, through the embassy in Lisbon, through a communication made directly to the Prime Minister, António Costa, last August.
This case is considered “extreme seriousness” and it was US intelligence cyber spies to detect “For sale on the dark web hundreds of documents sent by NATO to Portugal, classified as secret and confidential”.
Contacted by the Lusa agency, the prime minister’s office, which is following this case directly, said that for the time being “nothing more needs to be done” regarding what he is doing to the News diary about this case.
“The government can guarantee that the Ministry of National Defense and the armed forces work on a daily basis, so that Portugal’s credibility, as a founding member of the Atlantic Alliance, remains intact”said a source from António Costa’s office.
It is also noted that “the exchange of information between allies in the field of information security is permanent at bilateral and multilateral level”.
“Whenever there is a suspicion of cybersecurity of information system networks, the situation is comprehensively analyzed and all procedures aimed at enhancing cybersecurity awareness and appropriate handling of information to face new types of threats are implemented. . . If, and when, a security compromise is confirmed, the subsequent investigation of disciplinary and/or criminal liability automatically determines the establishment of appropriate procedures.”is added to the answer given to the News diary.
Source: DN
