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The world's most extensive case of cybercrime-espionage, including attacks on U.S. government and U.N. computers, was revealed Wednesday by online security firm McAfee, and analysts are speculating that China is behind the attacks.
The spying was dubbed "Operation Shady RAT," or "remote access tool" by McAfee -- and it led to a massive loss of information that poses a huge economic threat, wrote vice president of threat research Dmitri Alperoitch.
July 20, 2010: A network defender works at the Air Force Space Command Network Operations & Security Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
"What is happening to all this data -- by now reaching petabytes as a whole -- is still largely an open question," Alperovitch wrote on a blog detailing the threat. "However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation (due to having stolen the other teams playbook), the loss represents a massive economic threat."
Analysts told The Washington Post that the finger of blame for the infiltration of the 72 networks -- 49 of them in the U.S. -- points firmly in the direction of China.
California-based McAfee would only say it believed there was one "state actor" behind the cyber-attacks -- identified from logs tracked to a single server -- against a long list of victims, including the governments of the U.S., Taiwan, India, Canada and others; the International Olympic Committee; the U.N; and an array of high firms and defense contractors.
Alperovitch admitted he was shocked by the scope of the scam.
"Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," he wrote in a 14-page report released on Wednesday.
As the threat of cyberwarfare grows, 56 percent of Americans believe the U.S. should be able to authorize cyberattacks when necessary, according to a poll posted on 60Minutes.com.
For the complete story click here: Massive Global Cyberattack Targeting U.S., U.N. Discovered; Experts Blame China
It only shows that no matter how well an organization protects itself from external cybercriminals, that because of the human factor (like internal employees) network access can sometimes be gained by the bad guys. You should definitely check the effectiveness of your security. Take a free phishing security test of your company.
Stu Sjouwerman
KnowBe4
[/caption]The world's most extensive case of cybercrime-espionage, including attacks on U.S. government and U.N. computers, was revealed Wednesday by online security firm McAfee, and analysts are speculating that China is behind the attacks.
The spying was dubbed "Operation Shady RAT," or "remote access tool" by McAfee -- and it led to a massive loss of information that poses a huge economic threat, wrote vice president of threat research Dmitri Alperoitch.
July 20, 2010: A network defender works at the Air Force Space Command Network Operations & Security Center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
"What is happening to all this data -- by now reaching petabytes as a whole -- is still largely an open question," Alperovitch wrote on a blog detailing the threat. "However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation (due to having stolen the other teams playbook), the loss represents a massive economic threat."
Analysts told The Washington Post that the finger of blame for the infiltration of the 72 networks -- 49 of them in the U.S. -- points firmly in the direction of China.
California-based McAfee would only say it believed there was one "state actor" behind the cyber-attacks -- identified from logs tracked to a single server -- against a long list of victims, including the governments of the U.S., Taiwan, India, Canada and others; the International Olympic Committee; the U.N; and an array of high firms and defense contractors.
Alperovitch admitted he was shocked by the scope of the scam.
"Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," he wrote in a 14-page report released on Wednesday.
As the threat of cyberwarfare grows, 56 percent of Americans believe the U.S. should be able to authorize cyberattacks when necessary, according to a poll posted on 60Minutes.com.
For the complete story click here: Massive Global Cyberattack Targeting U.S., U.N. Discovered; Experts Blame China
It only shows that no matter how well an organization protects itself from external cybercriminals, that because of the human factor (like internal employees) network access can sometimes be gained by the bad guys. You should definitely check the effectiveness of your security. Take a free phishing security test of your company.
Stu Sjouwerman
KnowBe4
