A technical incident has led to a partial shutdown of Spain’s Ministry of Science IT systems and its electronic headquarters, suspending several citizen and company facing services and ongoing administrative procedures.
KEY FACTS
- Incident Partial closure of the ministry’s electronic headquarters
- Impact Administrative procedures suspended
- Scope Systems used by researchers, universities and students affected
- Claim Threat actor alleges IDOR exploit and full admin access
An announcement from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades said the electronic headquarters has been partially closed while the incident is assessed.
All ongoing administrative procedures are suspended and deadlines for affected procedures will be extended in accordance with Article 32 of Law 39/2015 to mitigate the disruption.
A threat actor using the alias “GordonFreeman” posted samples on underground forums claiming to have exploited a critical Insecure Direct Object Reference vulnerability to obtain credentials and full admin level access. The leaked samples include personal records, email addresses, enrollment applications and screenshots of official documents.
The forum where the information appeared is currently offline and the data has not appeared on alternative platforms. The announcement provided no additional technical details and the authenticity of the posted samples has not been confirmed.
WHY IT MATTERS
The affected systems support researchers, universities and students and handle sensitive personal and institutional data. The extended deadlines aim to reduce immediate administrative harm while the incident is assessed.