A perpetrator hacked a female RAF staffer's dating app profile, using her online presence to sweet-talk a male Royal Air Force employee and stealing secret information about the US fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter just weeks after the first four jets entered service, according to a report by Mail Online.
Information about the state-of-the-art US jets was leaked to mysterious wrongdoers in a movie-like plot, the UK military confirmed to the British tabloid. The perpetrator set a classic honey trap for a crew members working on F-35 fighter project.
Someone hacked the Tinder profile of a female RAF staffer, then contacted another servicemen posing as this woman and sweet-talked him to sharing information about the expensive US stealth fighter. It is unclear who the perpetrator was or what international powers may have orchestrated the plot.
The woman whose account was hacked quickly reported the incident, enabling prompt follow-up and an investigation, according to an RAF warning memo, cited by the Daily Mail.
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“Fortunately, little information was disclosed and the individual whose account had been hacked reported this matter expediently […] Nevertheless, this incident serves to highlight the risk of social engineering and online reconnaissance against social media profiles that disclose links to HM Forces,” the memo, written by the RAF's Principal Security…
