Hungarian government email passwords exposed ahead of election

When voters in the forthcoming Hungarian election assess the current government, its record on internet security will not be one of its proudest achievements.

An analysis by open source investigation organization Bellingcat has revealed that the passwords for almost 800 Hungarian government email accounts are circulating online, many of them associated with national security. These breaches in security are not down to high-tech attacks but rather are the result of poor email hygiene among government employees. The security leaks were widespread: 12 out of 13 government departments were affected.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration likes to present itself as firm protector of Hungarian borders, resisting foreign interference, but this doesn’t seem to apply to its computing prowess. Among those whose details were revealed were an officer responsible for information security and a counter-terrorism expert.

Bellingcat found that government officials have been using weak passwords such as variations of the word “Password” or the number sequence “1234567, while another simply used his surname.

The Hungarian government is not alone in its laxity.  Earlier this year, Specops found that 6 billion logins had been exposed online and found that number sequences and ‘password’ featured highly in the list of the most compromised logins.

The vulnerabilities inherent in the Hungarian example are a warning to all CSOs that they should be reminding their staff to tighten their security credentials. Many choose simple, short memorable passwords because they’re easy to remember but using a password manager or deploying passkeys will immediately strengthen employees’ ability to protect data.