Thousands of civil servants have password exposed for over a year in 'particularly dangerous' incident

• Over 3,000 UK civil servant passwords were found exposed on the dark web
• Many passwords were weak, risking public institutions and national interests
• Ministry of Justice was most affected; report urges better cyber hygiene

Hundreds of civil servants, working in national and regional organizations in the United Kingdom, have had their business passwords exposed on the dark web, showing that public organizations are no better than their private counterparts when it comes to safeguarding important secrets.

This is according to password manager firm NordPass, and threat exposure management platform NordStellar. The two organizations recently cross-referenced more than 5,500 organizations in six countries (the US, UK, Canada, France, Italy, and Germany), based on their email domains - the research found a total of 3,014 passwords exposed on the dark web.

They included national and federal parliaments, governments, Presidents’ administrations, as well as local and regional governments ...