Unknown individual stole data on the atmospheres of alien worlds from the European Space Agency 0 7

An unknown perpetrator claimed to have gained access to ESA's systems and stole approximately 200 GB of information, including confidential documents and technical data.

According to publications by French cybersecurity specialist Seb Latom, the perpetrator claims to have obtained the source code of the software, API tokens, access tokens for various ESA systems, as well as configuration files and embedded passwords.

Screenshots posted by the perpetrator on the dark web also indicate a possible data leak concerning subsystems of the ARIEL mission, which is designed to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, as well as materials from Airbus dated 2015 and marked as confidential.

However, ESA stated that the initial analysis revealed only a limited number of affected scientific servers, which are located outside the agency's corporate network. These servers are used for non-confidential collaborative engineering and scientific activities within the scientific community, which reduces risks to critical infrastructures.

This is not the first incident involving external ESA platforms: in December 2024, the agency's online store, managed by a third-party provider, was hacked for fraudulent payments. ESA reported that stakeholders have been notified and short-term measures to protect potentially vulnerable systems have already been implemented.