Airbus investigates a data leak revealed on a web black market

The European aerospace giant victim of a data leak? Airbus has just launched an internal investigation to set the record straight. This Monday, September 11, a hacker claimed on a black market to have had access to information related to the company’s suppliers.

This hacker thus explains that he has entered the Airbus information system using the accesses of an employee of a Turkish airline. “It allowed me to discover a lot of things,” he says.

“Commercial documents”

This method of intrusion has been corroborated by Airbus. In a statement sent to the press, the company confirms that an unnamed customer’s computer account was attacked and then used to download commercial documents from a company portal.

“Immediate corrective and follow-up measures have been taken by our security teams to prevent our systems from being compromised,” says the aircraft manufacturer. An allusion in particular to the suspension of the hacked account, one of the first measures to be taken.

The hacked Turkish employee’s account was identified by the Hudson Rock cybersecurity company. This employee of Turkish Airlines was, emphasizes the firm, victim in August 2023 of a stealer, these software thieves of login credentials. In particular, he had an identifier to log in to an Airbus portal.

Supplier data

According to the hacker, the leaked file, shared without a price, gathers data on more than 3,000 Airbus suppliers, “leading personalities in the defense sector”. These are contact data (name, email addresses, and phone), also specifies the Hudson Rock cybersecurity company.

If this computer intrusion is annoying, it seems to be of a lesser magnitude than the wave of hacks suffered in 2019 by Airbus. The AFP had counted four “major” computer attacks, suspected of having been piloted from China. One of the attacks, detected in December 2018 by the Anssi, the cyber-firefighter of the state, in December 2018, had first targeted one of the subcontractors of the aircraft manufacturer, with decidedly coveted secrets.