The European Commission is investigating a significant data breach after the cybercrime group ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen over 350 GB of data from its cloud infrastructure.

Key points

• The European Commission detected a cyberattack on March 24 affecting cloud infrastructure hosting its Europa.eu websites.
• Threat actor ShinyHunters claims to have exfiltrated more than 350 GB of data, including databases and confidential documents.
• The Commission confirmed that internal systems remain unaffected and is currently notifying potentially impacted Union entities.
• AWS stated its own services were not compromised, clarifying that the breach occurred within the Commission's specific account environment.
• This incident follows a separate January 30 security event involving the Commission's mobile device management system.

This breach highlights the persistent vulnerability of major international institutions to sophisticated cyberattacks targeting cloud-hosted services. As the European Commission strengthens its cybersecurity posture, the incident serves as a reminder of the ongoing risks posed by extortion groups to critical government infrastructure and sensitive data.