A hackers was able to stole some classified U.S. military documents.
They include: manuals for the M1 Abrams tank, a manual for platoon tactics, and a manual for minimizing the potential damage of improvised explosive devices. And also manuals about MQ-9 Reaper drones, including its maintenance manuals and a list of people assigned to work on its maintenance.
Two people who are tied to the military inadvertently leaked the files, because they failed to change either the username or password on their routers.
What this means, all the hacker had to do, was only scanning the internet for routers with default router settings. Using the default settings found on the manufacturer's website, the hacker can get inside the network to steal contents from computers attached to those routers.
Later, Andrei Barysevich a Recorded Future researcher, discovered the that files in question were on sale on the dark web for just $150.
After asking the hackers about how the files had been obtained, the researcher alerted the Defense Security Service, the military branch tasked with internal security.
Barysevich said that the hacker was inexperienced, after knowing that the hacker only used an easily obtained search engine, Shodan, to search the internet for people who were still using the default usernames and passwords on Netgear routers.
"$150 is nothing,” said Barysevich. "We felt like he has no true understanding of the value of this information, he had no idea how to sell it, he was just trying to get rid of it."
Bareseyvich said that whilst the stolen documents weren’t classified, but still, they were highly sensitive.
Previously, in June 2018, Chinese hackers stole U.S. submarine warfare plans after gaining access to a U.S. Navy contractor’s computer.
