Experts from the McAffee security company have recently discovered the biggest cyber attack
in history. The networks of 72 organisations including the United Nations, governments and
companies around the world have been infiltrated by a yet unknown source. However, security
experts from McAffee believe that evidence that has been uncovered so far, has pointed to one
“state actor” and that is China. But they are yet to do further investigations to conclude their
present findings.
The infiltration of the systems lasted for a total of five years with some companies, countries
and organizations being hacked for a year, while others for just a few months. The long list
of victims in the five-year campaign include the governments of the US, Taiwan, India, South
Korea, Vietnam and Canada; the Association of South-east Asian Nations ; the International
Olympic Committee (IOC); the World Anti-Doping Agency; and an array of companies from
defence contractors to high-tech enterprises.
McAfee learned of the extent of the hacking campaign in March this year when its researchers
discovered logs of the attacks while reviewing the contents of a “command and control” server
that they had discovered in 2009 as part of an investigation into security breaches at defence
companies.
The still unknown hackers gathered pertinent data from the 72 victims, and while the experts
still don’t know where these data are going, or what there use will be, the damage of the cyber
attack has resulted to massive economic threat.
Right now, the countries involved in the cyber attack have pledged to work together to target
hackers and to launch a counteroffensive attack to kick them off the net. This security counter
attack is aimed towards eastern and Russian countries who have been the resounding culprits
of system hacking for the past years. These attacks are even suspected to be sponsored by
certain states. This security plan of attack has been dubbed the “strikeback”.
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/04/hacking-security-authorities?
INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/03/biggest-series-cyber-attacks-uncovered