The investigators revealed the vulnerability of the “Sellafield” zone to hackers

The most dangerous nuclear facility in Great Britain, Sellafield, was subjected to a cyberattack by hacker groups closely associated with Russia and China, The Guardian reported.

Important facts and related potential threats were hidden for a long time by the top management of this large nuclear facility. The Sellafield nuclear complex is located on the coast of the Irish Sea. In different years, the complex’s enterprises produced weapons-grade plutonium, produced fuel for nuclear power plants, and processed irradiated nuclear fuel. From 1956 to 1983, the nuclear power plant operated here.

Investigators of the British edition of The Guardian discovered that the administration of the complex did not have accurate information about the first unauthorized external intrusion into Sellafield’s computer networks. However, informed sources claim that the first break-ins occurred in 2015. Then experts discovered the presence of dormant malicious programs that can be used for espionage activity or attack computer networks. Such programs, as it turned out, were introduced into Sellafield’s computer networks.

It is still not completely clear whether it was possible to neutralize the once introduced malicious programs. Their presence could cause significant damage to the secrecy of Sellafield’s security system, the publications note. We are talking, in particular, about the movement of radioactive waste, about the monitoring of possible leaks of dangerous substances.

Sources suggest that foreign hackers could gain access to top-secret information about the structure and functions of the industrial and research zone. The area of ​​this zone on the sea coast is 6 square kilometers. The Guardian adds that it is “one of the most dangerous sites in the world.”

For several years, the administration of the Sellafield Nuclear Center avoided informing the higher nuclear authorities about alleged hacking of computer networks.

Sellafield holds the largest stockpile of plutonium on Earth. There is also an extensive dump of nuclear waste, which was formed as a result of the creation of weapons and the ten-year production of atomic energy.”