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A hacker has claimed to have leaked roughly 40GB of data belonging to National Grid, publishing what appears to be a collection of source code, infrastructure configurations and internal technical projects on a cybercrime forum.
The post appeared on Friday and is the first published by the forum account behind the claim. The hacker provided a download link and described the material as source code, DevOps scripts involving CI/CD, Docker and Terraform, ETL and SQL data, Snowflake material, automated tests, cloud infrastructure configurations and project documentation. The archive was advertised as a 40GB compressed TAR file.
What Data is Included
Files seen by Hackread.com are broadly consistent with the description of a technical repository dump. An archive obtained for review measures about 41,771,813 KB, while its contents total approximately 42.8GB.
In total, the archive contains 5,525 files, including numerous compressed project archives with names referring to system architecture, data engineering, GIS, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, forecasting and other National Grid projects.
It is worth noting that nothing shown so far establishes that customer or employee personal information forms part of the leak. The material visible in the archive listing appears primarily related to software development, engineering and internal technology projects.
However, the absence of obvious personal data in the filenames does not rule out its presence within individual archives, source files, logs or documentation. Given that the leak contains thousands of files, Hackread.com was unable to review every file individually.
The Breach Remains Alleged
How the files were obtained also remains unknown. The hacker did not explain the initial access method and did not claim whether National Grid itself, a contractor, a development environment, or another third party was compromised. With no technical account of the alleged breach provided, the source of the material cannot be determined from the forum post alone.
There are also reasons to treat the claim cautiously until National Grid confirms an incident or further evidence becomes available. The account has no previous posts on the forum, and a collection carrying National Grid names does not by itself establish when the files were obtained, whether every file originated from the company or whether the archive resulted from a direct compromise.
About National Grid
National Grid has an important role in Britain’s electricity infrastructure. Through National Grid Electricity Transmission, the company owns and maintains the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales, carrying power from generators through pylons, overhead lines, underground cables and substations before it reaches regional distribution networks.
Its distribution business also supplies the network infrastructure serving nearly eight million customers in the Midlands, South West England and South Wales. National Grid does not sell electricity to those customers. Its distribution operation manages the physical network used to deliver power to homes and businesses in those regions.
The Dangers…
Even without customer records, exposed engineering material can still carry cybersecurity significance. Source code and infrastructure-as-code files can contain information about internal applications, network design, cloud resources, deployment processes and dependencies.
Furthermore, configuration repositories can also contain credentials or other secrets when development practices have failed to keep them out of source control. Whether the National Grid archive contains any such material has not been established.
At this stage, the incident is best described as an unverified leak claim involving a sizeable collection of apparent National Grid technical material. There is currently no evidence in the material reviewed that the alleged incident disrupted electricity services, and the hacker’s post provides no information showing access to operational electricity control systems.
Hackread.com has reached out to National Grid UK. This article will be updated accordingly. Stay tuned!
(Top/Featured Image via National Grid’s Facebook page)
