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Sunday 17 January 2010
Attacks part of campaign to steal codes, track activists
Cyber attacks that prompted Google to defy Chinese censors appear to have been part of an ongoing campaign to steal source codes and track human rights activists, experts say.
Attacks part of campaign to steal codes, track activists
Agence France-Presse in San Francisco 15 January 2010
Cyber attacks that prompted Google to defy Chinese censors appear to have been part of an ongoing campaign to steal source codes and track human rights activists, experts say.
“It’s a complete pattern of attacks,” Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat and DefCon computer security conferences and a member of the US Homeland Security Advisory Council, said on Wednesday.
“Google has brought to light a lot of the stuff security people have been saying for years behind the scenes,” Moss said. “These attacks are well written; it’s not just a group of hackers that got together.”
China-based cyber spies struck the internet giant and reportedly more than 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid for the source codes, intellectual property and information about activists around the world. Adobe Systems said on Wednesday that four days earlier it had a “computer security incident involving a sophisticated, co-ordinated attack against corporate networks systems” managed by it and other firms.
Adobe and other technology firms that make text, video, or Web-surfing software used in most computers are prime targets for cyber spies who could turn software secrets to their advantage, Moss said.
A law firm representing a US software maker suing Beijing for code theft said on Wednesday it, too, had been targeted by hackers.
Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, representing Cybersitter in a US$2.2 billion piracy suit filed against China and seven major computer manufacturers, said its lawyers were sent customised Trojan e-mails aimed at retrieving data from the company’s computers and servers. It said the specific source of the attacks had not been determined, but they appeared to have been initiated in China.
Security specialists noted similarities between the recent cyber assault and attacks on about 100 US companies in the middle of last year.
“We sent information about the source IP addresses to some defence contractors who see attacks like this all the time from China,” said Eli Jellenc, manager of international cyber intelligence at Verisign-iDefense. “Sure enough, the IP and [modus operandi] of this set of attacks resemble some we see going back well into last year.”
The scope of the recent attacks was unprecedented, Jellenc said, calling it “a significant leap in the amount of planning and strategy”.
“The attackers were after the companies’ most valuable intellectual property. In one, they were after software; another, after engineering schematics; another, after corporate strategy plans,” he said.
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Attacks part of campaign to steal codes, track activists
Agence France-Presse in San Francisco
15 January 2010
Cyber attacks that prompted Google to defy Chinese censors appear to have been part of an ongoing campaign to steal source codes and track human rights activists, experts say.
“It’s a complete pattern of attacks,” Jeff Moss, founder of the Black Hat and DefCon computer security conferences and a member of the US Homeland Security Advisory Council, said on Wednesday.
“Google has brought to light a lot of the stuff security people have been saying for years behind the scenes,” Moss said. “These attacks are well written; it’s not just a group of hackers that got together.”
China-based cyber spies struck the internet giant and reportedly more than 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid for the source codes, intellectual property and information about activists around the world. Adobe Systems said on Wednesday that four days earlier it had a “computer security incident involving a sophisticated, co-ordinated attack against corporate networks systems” managed by it and other firms.
Adobe and other technology firms that make text, video, or Web-surfing software used in most computers are prime targets for cyber spies who could turn software secrets to their advantage, Moss said.
A law firm representing a US software maker suing Beijing for code theft said on Wednesday it, too, had been targeted by hackers.
Gipson Hoffman & Pancione, representing Cybersitter in a US$2.2 billion piracy suit filed against China and seven major computer manufacturers, said its lawyers were sent customised Trojan e-mails aimed at retrieving data from the company’s computers and servers. It said the specific source of the attacks had not been determined, but they appeared to have been initiated in China.
Security specialists noted similarities between the recent cyber assault and attacks on about 100 US companies in the middle of last year.
“We sent information about the source IP addresses to some defence contractors who see attacks like this all the time from China,” said Eli Jellenc, manager of international cyber intelligence at Verisign-iDefense. “Sure enough, the IP and [modus operandi] of this set of attacks resemble some we see going back well into last year.”
The scope of the recent attacks was unprecedented, Jellenc said, calling it “a significant leap in the amount of planning and strategy”.
“The attackers were after the companies’ most valuable intellectual property. In one, they were after software; another, after engineering schematics; another, after corporate strategy plans,” he said.
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