Massive Data Breach Hits European Commission

Cybersecurity agency CERT-EU reports that a recent hack and data breach at the EU's executive body, the European Commission, was the work of a cybercriminal group known as TeamPCP.

A recent hack and data breach at the EU's executive body, the European Commission, has been attributed to a cybercriminal group known as TeamPCP. The breach highlights a growing trend of cybercriminals working together to extort their victims.

According to CERT-EU, the hackers stole around 92 gigabytes of compressed data from a compromised Amazon Web Services (AWS) account used by the bloc's executive. The data included personal information containing names, email addresses, and the contents of emails.

The breach affected the cloud infrastructure of the Commission's Europa.eu platform, which member states use to host websites and publications of the bloc's institutions and agencies. CERT-EU wrote that the data of at least 29 other EU entities may be affected, and that dozens of internal European Commission clients could have had data stolen as well.

The stolen data was then posted online by another hacking group, the notorious ShinyHunters.

While the size of the data breach is itself notable, the hack and subsequent leak of the European Commission's data by two separate hacking groups highlights a growing trend of cybercriminals working together to extort their victims.

CERT-EU said that the breach originated on March 19 when hackers acquired a secret API key associated with the European Commission's AWS account, following an earlier hack targeting the open-source security tool Trivy. The Commission inadvertently downloaded a copy of the compromised Trivy tool following the project's recent breach, allowing the hackers to steal its secret API key and use that access to pivot to obtain data stored in the Commission's AWS account.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the European Commission told TechCrunch that the body is closed until next week, and would respond to a request for comment then.

The hackers have been linked to ransomware attacks and crypto-mining campaigns, says Aqua Security, which develops Trivy. The hackers have more recently been behind a systematic campaign of supply chain attacks compromising other open-source security projects, according to Palo Alto Networks Unit 42.

By targeting developers with keys to access sensitive systems, the hackers then have the ability to hold compromised organizations for ransom, demanding extortion payments, Unit 42 wrote.