The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) suffered a “serious cyber-security incident,” according to a tender document published on a government website supposedly by accident.
The document suggests that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had to call in BAE Systems Applied Intelligence to manage the cyberattack, paying them £467,326 ($634,198.)
The details of the attack currently cannot be disclosed, so it remains unclear who was responsible for the cyberattack and what effects it had.
“The Authority was the target of a serious cyber security incident, details of which cannot be disclosed. In response to this incident, urgent support was required to support remediation and investigation,” the document said.
The contract with BAE ended on 12 January 2022, but it’s unclear when the incident took place.
“The Awarded Supplier is the Authority’s long term incumbent service management integrator and as such had resources on site with significant knowledge and understanding of the Authority’s infrastructure,” the document furtherly stated.
“Due to the urgency and criticality of the work, the Authority was unable comply with the time limits for the open or restricted procedures or competitive procedures with negotiation,” the department said, as reported by the Stack, which first broke the news about the cyberattack.
The news comes just a few days after China-backed hackers were accused of espionage for allegedly targeting News Corp’s journalists across major organizations.
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