Anon

Websites of the European Space Agency (ESA) have been breached by Anonymous, a day before the launch of the Principia mission.

The hack leaked personal details of more than 8,000 people, with their names, email addresses and passwords available in the public domain.

Having breached into the ESA site using a blind SQL vulnerability, the attackers targeted three subdomains.

Leaked data was structured into three categories, which are registered users, database schemas and ESA collaborators, with a list of full names, fax and phone numbers, addresses and email addresses of people connected with the agency.

"The hack leaked personal details of more than 8,000 people, with their names, email addresses and passwords available in the public domain."

Anonymous is an international association of hactivists and activists involved in cyber attacks on government, religious and corporate websites.

The group previously breached the government websites of the US and Israel, corporations such as PayPal, MasterCard, Visa and Sony, as well as child pornography sites.

It recently leaked details of officials at United Nations Climate Conference (Cop21) and World Trade Organisation.

The group claimed they breached the ESA website for ‘lulz’ (for fun).

Experts say the leak exposes weaknesses in ESA’s cyber security setup, as several passwords were as short as a three-digit number.

The space agency is launching its six-month Principia mission to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Image: Anonymous is an international association of hactivists. Photo: courtesy of Vincent Diamante.