LONDON — The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is investigating claims Russian hackers stole hundreds of sensitive military documents and published them on the dark web.
The Mail on Sunday first reported the files on the dark web — an area of internet that can only be accessed through particular software — hold details of eight RAF and Royal Navy bases as well as MoD staff names and emails.
Maintenance and construction contractor Dodd Group confirmed it suffered a ransomware incident and it was taking the claims "extremely seriously".
The MoD said in a statement it was "actively investigating the claims that information relating to the MoD has been published on the dark web".
"To safeguard sensitive operational information, we will not comment any further on the details," it added in a statement.
The Mail on Sunday reported the documents hold information about a number of sensitive RAF and Navy bases, including RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, where the US Air Force's F-35 jets are based.
A Dodd Group spokesperson said: "We can confirm that the Dodd Group recently experienced a ransomware incident whereby an unauthorised third-party gained temporary access to part of our internal systems.
"We took immediate steps to contain the incident, swiftly secure our systems and engaged a specialist IT forensic firm to investigate what happened.
"We are taking these claims extremely seriously and are working hard to validate this."
The hacks follow a series of high-profile data breaches at the MoD.
In August it was revealed thousands of Afghans brought to safety in the UK had their personal data exposed after an MoD sub-contractor suffered a data breach.
Last year the personal information of an unknown number of serving UK military personnel was accessed in a significant data breach. — BBC