ThouGermany’s military confirmed on Saturday that a vulnerability in their video-conferencing tool, Webex, inadvertently made over 6,000 of its meetings accessible online, including some that were classified. Zeit Online, which reported the incident, discovered the meetings by simply using search terms within the military’s Webex system.
The Bundeswehr stated that the glitch was rectified within 24 hours of its discovery. According to a military spokesperson speaking to the AFP news agency, unauthorized individuals could not join these video conferences without being detected by participants, ensuring that no confidential information was compromised during the breach.
This security lapse comes shortly after another incident where discussions about supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles by German air force officials were leaked online by Russian sources in March, an issue still under federal investigation.
Zeit Online revealed that the compromised meetings involved rooms used by up to 248,000 German soldiers. The vulnerability affected the Bundeswehr’s specialized version of Webex, which is designed to be more secure than the standard public version. Notably, the meeting room of Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz, mentioned in the previous leak, was also found through the breach. The military was reportedly unaware of the security flaws until Zeit Online reached out for a comment.
