Neuron, here is the real target of the hacker attack on Leonardo
From the warranty notice viewed by Reuters for the hacker attack against Leonardo, it emerges that one of the former Finmeccanica employees was targeting the details of the nEUROn program, an unmanned military drone, on which Dassault, Saab and Airbus also work
The nEUROn program, a demonstrator of an unmanned aircraft for tactical uses, is the target of the hacker attack on the Italian defense giant Leonardo.
Investigations revealed that two former employees of the former Finmeccanica stole several computers from the Leonardo plant in Pomigliano d'Arco (Naples) between May 2015 and January 2017.
The attack concerns the exfiltration of 10 gigabytes of data and information of significant corporate value to the Leonardo group.
On December 5, the Naples prosecutor's office arrested the consultant Arturo D'Elia and Leonardo's employee Antonio Rossi, for their alleged role in hacking 94 computers, 33 of which were in the Pomigliano plant of the former Finmeccanica group.
Yesterday Reuters reported that, starting from the warranty notice, the object of the exfiltrated data is the largest European unmanned fighter plane project.
All the details.
CYBERCRIME AGAINST FORMER FINMECCANICA
In January 2017, Leonardo's cyber security structure reported to the police an anomalous network traffic leaving some workstations of the Pomigliano d'Arco plant. ( Here all the details in the Start study ).
The Piazza Monte Grappa company denounced the fact, starting the investigation.
CAUTION MEASURES AGAINST D'ELIA AND ROSSI
After the investigations of the cybercrime working group of the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office, aimed at defining the contours of a serious attack on the IT structures of the Aerostructures Division and the Aircraft Division of Leonardo, the Cnaipic of the Central Service of the Postal and Communications Police and the Campania Compartment of the same service carried out two application ordinances of precautionary measures against Arturo D'Elia and Antonio Rossi, the first being suspected of the crimes of abusive access to the computer system, illicit interception of electronic communications and illicit data processing personal and, the second, the crime of misdirection. (Here the in-depth study by Start on who they are and what they did according to the prosecutors)
WHAT REUTERS REVEALED
As Reuters points out, the guarantee notice does not reveal whether the hacker acted independently or on behalf of others.
However, for the first time, there is talk of the goal of the cyber attack.
In the order issued by the court, the investigating judge cites the evidence that one of the violated computers belonged to a Leonardo technician who worked on the nEUROn program.
THE NEURON PROGRAM, TARGET OF THE HACKER ATTACK ON LEONARDO
It is an experimental unmanned military aircraft designed in 2012.
NEUROn is a European program that involves Dassault Aviation for France as prime contractor, Leonardo for Italy, Saab for Sweden, Airbus for Spain, HAI for Greece and RUAG for Switzerland.
The goal was to create a stealth platform, equivalent in size to a fighter plane, capable of autonomously detecting a target on the ground, and possibly carrying out an air strike.
LEONARDO'S PARTICIPATION IN NEURON
Leonardo's Aircraft Division, the main partner of the program with a 22% participation, is responsible for the integrated bay for intelligent armament, the electrical system and various subsystems with low observability (LO) characteristics.
A SIMILAR PLATFORM USED WITH THE FCAS
Reuters also points out that a platform similar to the nEUROn could be used in collaboration with the Future Combat Air System (FCAS). The latter is the hunting program developed by France, Germany and Spain which should have the capacity to operate a "swarm of drones".
ATR AND C27J AIRCRAFT AMONG THE OTHER TARGETS
In addition to data on Leonardo's nEUROn program, other data compromised by the hacker attack could include the C27J military transport aircraft and ATR military and commercial turboprop aircraft , according to the document viewed by Reuters .
THE POSITION OF LEONARDO
At the request for comment from the press agency, Leonardo reiterated that classified and strategic information was not stored on the hacked computers. Leonardo does not keep top secret military data in the group's plant in Pomigliano d'Arco. Cristiana Mangani del Messaggero wrote days ago: "The real strategic center of the company is located in Chieti, and is operational 24 hours a day".
Leonardo also declared on December 5 that he was the injured party and that he first reported the hacking, adding that he would continue to cooperate fully with the police.
THE ACCUSATIONS TO ROSSI AND D'ELIA
Last December 5 the Naples prosecutor then arrested Arturo D'Elia and Antonio Rossi who had both worked for Leonardo.
In the warranty notice, the judge cited several possible reasons behind the attack.
These included "the use of data for industrial and commercial purposes, blackmail and military espionage activities or simply the intention to damage the company's image by demonstrating its organizational and IT vulnerability".
Last Friday the Naples Review Court rejected the appeals of D'Elia and Rossi's lawyers against their arrests.
As Il Mattino wrote "to D'Elia, who is imprisoned in the Salerno Fuorni prison, prosecutors Maria Sofia Cozza and Claudio Orazio Onorati, of the special anti-cyber crime pool of the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office, contest the abusive access to the computer system, unlawful interception of electronic communications and unlawful processing of personal data. The arrest also confirmed for Antonio Rossi, an employee of Leonardo Spa, to whom the investigators contest the crime of aiding and abetting ".
START MAGAZINE INSIGHTS:
Leonardo-Finmeccanica, who are the two arrested (and what they did according to the prosecutors)
All the details on the cyber attack on Leonardo. The role of the former Finmeccanica Cert
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/neuron-ecco-il-vero-bersaglio-dellattacco-hacker-a-leonardo/ on Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:06:58 +0000.