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An unknown hacker stole sensitive data on Australia's war planes

Sensitive information on Australia’s fighter jets and naval vessels was stolen in an extensive cyberattack, officials said Wednesday – and the identity of the hacker remains a mystery.

The hacker targeted a defense contractor and gained unfettered access to the contractor’s data from July-November 2016, before defense officials became aware of the breach, the government confirmed.

During that time, 30 GB of data was stolen, including restricted information on a new AUD$17 billion ($13.2 billion) fighter jet program.

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Defense Industry Minister Christopher Pyne told Australian public broadcaster ABC Thursday that the government still did not know who the hacker was.

“It could be one of a number of different actors,” Pyne said. “It could be a state actor, a non-state actor.”

He said the stolen data was commercially sensitive, but stressed it was not classified military intelligence, and the breach did not pose a threat to national security.

The hack was revealed when a manager for the Australian Signals Directorate, the government’s foreign intelligence collection agency, spoke about the case at a conference in Sydney Wednesday. Audio of his remarks were then passed to a journalist.

The manager, Mitchell Clarke, said the hacked contractor had been an aerospace engineering company with about 50 employees but only one IT staff member. He blamed “sloppy admin” for leaving the company open to the breach, which he described as “extensive and extreme,” with the hacker gaining access to “pretty much every server.”

The hacker used a tool often used by Chinese hackers, he said.

The case is the second major hack of a military target revealed this week. On Tuesday, a politician in Seoul claimed that North Korean hackers had stolen the U.S. and South Korea’s plans for a potential war with Kim Jong Un’s regime in a huge cyberattack last year.