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McAfee rats out 72 organisations that were hacked
INSECURITY OUTFIT McAfee claims that the networks of 72 organisations including the United Nations, governments and companies around the world were hacked over many years.
McAfee claims it uncovered the network breaches, saying that it believed one "state actor" was involved but did not name the state. Reuters managed to find one security "expert" that pretty much automatically pointed the finger at China, but there's little publicly available information to come to such a conclusion, no matter how convenient that may be.
The real shock is not the number of organisations targeted but the timescale of these breaches, which McAfee says took place over a span of five years. Apart from the United Nations, McAfee says it identified networks in the US, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Canada all being hacked. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency were also named among numerous other organisations and companies worldwide.
Dmitri Alperovitch, VP of threat research at McAfee said, "Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators."
Alperovitch continued, seemingly perplexed and worried, saying, "What is happening to all this data ... is still largely an open question. 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 team's playbook), the loss represents a massive economic threat."
Apparently McAfee figured out the scale of these attacks, which it dubbed Operation Shady RAT [remote access tool], back in March.
When talking with Reuters, Alperovitch was less restrained, saying, "Companies and government agencies are getting raped and pillaged every day. They are losing economic advantage and national secrets to unscrupulous competitors." He added that all 72 organisations that were affected by the attacks have been informed and law enforcement agencies around the world are on the case.
Pointing the finger at China is the easy way out. After all, it does have some form for hacking but the deeper question is how anyone, regardless of what nation they were working for, managed to compromise the networks of well known organisations that handle highly sensitive and in some cases Top Secret classified information and for so long.
And while McAfee and other insecurity vendors might use these attacks as a catalyst to flog more software and services, perhaps some analysis of the security that was already deployed is required.
After all, it would be a tad embarrassing if one of those 72 organisations relied on McAfee to secure its networks only for McAfee to find out, after five years, that its own products were not up to the job. µ
Tags: Software
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You are correct sir, I am American. I obviously showed the arrogance that we American's are known for. You make me smile. I enjoyed the article, and obviously, I know the difference between a country and an "organisation". Although I don't think you were directing that comment towards me. My point is that McAfee is being reckless to report this information if they don't (and won't) ever have the whole story. As far as China leading hacks, I know for a fact that my router log has IPs that trace route back to China. Don’t get me started on China. Their government is ruining the entire World’s economy by under valuing the Yuan. Chinese citizens should be able to travel anywhere and buy anything, but instead they are forced to work and live in terrible environments. Companies that use Chinese labor are just as guilty, but they would actually move their labor back home if the Chinese government played fair. Do the Chinese hack? Yes, in almost every way possible.
Are you an American perchance? The fact you put a z in it clearly tells me you are.
I believe a good few of the journos (if that's what you'd call them) are British, and therefore tend not to overuse the letter z in words.
Thanks for entertaining me though.
Both the z and s spelling are allowed (see your dictionary).
And the U.N. for instance isn't a company, and it's important to know that they are compromised (see wikipedia.org for info on the U.N.).
And the U.S. Government also isn't a company strictly speaking, nor is the Olympic committee.
I find it more worrying that again they have to accuse china, and even though most everybody accused china of most everything, I have yet to see them prove it, how odd that the target of propaganda is so easy to accuse and hard to indite huh, lucky coincidence.
Unless Organizations in the title is misspelled on purpose, please fix it. Let's assume that 50 percent of hacks are detected (the real number is probably less than 10 percent). What McAfee has done is responsibly irresponsible. Follow me for a second, McAfee has just blasted one half (benefit of the doubt) of the companies that have been hacked. This creates a stigma about those companies, but the other half that went undetected are not listed. If you ask me, those companies listed should be forming a class action lawsuit. Unless McAfee can guarantee it caught all hacking attempts it should not tarnish the reputations of a select few companies. You can see where I’m going with this… Next McAfee will be asking for money to keep your name off the “List”. FU McAfee. Basically, if you don’t have the whole story you should keep your mouth shut. Just one opinion, but you know what they say about opinions.
As for those who think the U.S. government perpetrated this, think about who was hacked? Weren't a lot of US corporations hacked? And think also, who do you suppose would concentrate it's efforts against Taiwan and the IOC? Oh, yes, the US is always looking for ways to harm its greatest ally in east asia for the last seventy years or so, and looking to get its steroid-pumped athletes past the IOC's detection methods. Wake up. And to those of you who laud ant-zionist propaganda, who call Hamas' bomb-making masterminds 'political leaders,' face it, such accusations as this author made would never pass muster at the BBC, or even, I daresay, at The Gaurdian. Morevover, I can tell whose side you would cheer were the mullahs to get their greatest dream come true, and with stolen western technology, complete the inevitable result of the technology transfer by A.Q. Khan and North Korea, and detonate a low-yield atomic device over Tel Aviv. You may wish for us all to perish from this Earth, but your ilk will never, not even for another three thousand years, succeed.
My personal guess without much backing:
If true it's the US (I mean the wikileaks released cables already exposed they at least also do it) - but they will claim it's whatever country they want to attack next.
And yes BTW, israel keeps itself informed, and with damn good reason.
There isin't actually anything wrong with being an anti-Israel propagandist right ?
Unless you are going to start calling people anti-semites or facists ?
I mean Israel wouldn't do anything as offensive as steal the passports of people from the UK and Australia and use them to murder a political leader in another country.... no.
Having been subjected to totally invasive hacking and control of my computers for 10.5 years 24/7/365 by a Tempest based intercept, feedback and control surveillance technology I call Toxic Surveillance, this is exactly what I was expecting to surface on a broad scale. It's the US/UK government intelligence agencies and its contractors having a go at everything just like they are doing to people.
This is an electromagnetic radiation intercept and hacking technology that can be used against any electronic device on a stand alone basis. No wired connections are needed. All those using it are in intense competition with each other to develop product to get the contracts and US government money. They target everything they can to decode and develop expertise and product. Naturally, they steal for their own profit. Those using it in my case are Colonel Vine USMC Ret and psychopathic Lt Harry Bird USMC Ret who have been at it against my computer systems for R&D objectives since February 2001. I have been using McAfee recently too.
It's easy to point the finger at China, you say. Well, according to the Montreal Gazette: "one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China." This means that there's some evidence, at least, that the source of the hacking was the PRC. You, on the other hand, with not a shred of evidence, accuse some hypothetical Zionists or Mugabe-ists of being the source. And you call yourself a journalist? More like an anti-Israel propagandist, I'd say. And though you might try hiding behind the defense that the Mossad has been known to infiltrate the computers of Iran, Israel's sworn enemy, never has that organization or any other "zionist entity" used its expertise for corporate espionage of friendly nations, such as Taiwan. Trying to sow discontent, you are; to make those countries and companies who deal with Israel reluctant to do so. Shame on you for your deceitful ways. Sir Oswald Mosely would be proud!