Secret data leaked from French sub maker: report

French defense contractor DCNS has been hit by a massive leak of secret data on its submarines that is likely to alarm India, which uses the boats, newspaper The Australian reported Wednesday.

The 22,400 leaked pages, which the daily reported it had seen, detail the combat capabilities of the Scorpene- class DCNS submarine designed for the Indian navy, variants of which are used by Malaysia and Chile. Brazil is also due to deploy the vessels in 2018.

Australia in April awarded DCNS a A$ 50 billion ($ 38 billion) contract to design and build its next generation of submarines.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull downplayed the leak’s impact, saying that while it was “of concern,” Australia is buying a model different from the Scorpene.

The leaked documents were marked “Restricted Scorpene India” and listed the combat capabilities of India’s new submarine fleet, The Australian said. They included thousands of pages on the sub’s sensors and thousands on its communication and navigation systems.

Indian Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar ordered a probe into the newspaper report, saying the documents could have been obtained through hacking.

“I have asked the navy chief to investigate the matter and find what has been leaked and how much of it is about us,” Parrikar told reporters in India.

“What I understand is there is a hacking,” he said without giving details.

DCNS told AFP it was aware of the articles and said “national security authorities” had launched an inquiry into the matter.