Atomic Energy Agency: Experts’ Email Addresses Stolen from Old Server

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reportedly is taking steps to secure its information after data was stolen from one of its former servers and posted online.

According to the IAEA, the stolen data includes email addresses for some experts working with the agency. The data was posted online by a group going by the name Parastoo, which in Farsi translates to “swallow.”

In a statement posted by the group on Pastebin, the hackers call for an investigation into nuclear activities by Israel, which historically has refused to confirm or deny whether or not it has nuclear weapons. The group also stated that it has evidence showing there are “beyond-harmful operations taking place” at Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Center, located outside Dimona, and that the people whose email addresses the group published could be considered partners in crime if an accident should happen there.

IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor told Reuters that the agency “deeply regrets this publication of information stolen from an old server that was shut down some time ago” and that measures had been taken to address a possible vulnerability on the affected server.

“The IAEA’s technical and security teams are continuing to analyze the situation and do everything possible to help ensure that no further information is vulnerable,” Tudor said.

Currently, the IAEA is heading up an investigation into Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. According to Reuters, a Western diplomat said the stolen information does not include any information related to that investigation.

Israel and the United States have accused Iran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon, and have been linked in news reports to efforts to destabilize those activities. Among those efforts was an intelligence operation code-named ‘Olympic Games’, which many believe led to the creation and deployment of the Stuxnet malware detected in Iran’s nuclear facility in Bushehr in 2010.