Hackers allegedly stole access tokens and confidential documents from the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) has suffered a security breach in its scientific servers, with a group of hackers claiming to have stolen 200 gigabytes of data including confidential documents and source code.

Earlier this week, the ESA confirmed the violation following reports on social media. “Our analysis so far indicates that only a very small number of external servers may have been impacted. These servers support unclassified collaborative engineering activities within the scientific community,” the space agency wrote on X.

Although the ESA says the recent cybersecurity problem has had minimal impact, a suspected hacker is offering to sell 200 GB of data from the agency’s servers on the cybercrime website BreachForums. The compromised data includes source codes, access tokens, hardcoded credentials, Terraform files and confidential documents, according to screenshots. common on X by French cybersecurity expert Seb Latom.

Some of the data could be linked to ESA’s upcoming Ariel space telescope, or Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, scheduled to launch in 2029. Data sold online compromises the security of space projects and risks code reuse for malicious purposes, according to Latom.

Wanted for cybercrime

This is not the first time that ESA servers have been compromised. In December 2024, hackers created a fake payment page on the agency’s online store to access customer information. In 2015, a group of hackers violated several ESA websites to collect information from agency staff and hundreds of subscribers.

The cybersecurity attacks against the ESA have all affected platforms hosted outside the agency’s internal network. Still, there have been too many incidents, suggesting that the agency’s data security needs improvement.

ESA’s American counterpart, NASA, has also suffered its share of security breaches over the years. The latest occurred in 2018, when hackers gained access to personal information, including Social Security numbers, belonging to agency staff members.

The ESA says it has launched a security forensic analysis and put measures in place to secure all potentially affected devices. “All relevant stakeholders have been informed and we will provide additional updates as soon as additional information becomes available,” the space agency added.