Revealed by software security firm McAfee at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas this week, the scale of “Operation Shady RAT”—a code name referring to a remote access tool used to break into networks—makes it somewhat shocking that a government agency didn’t spot the attack sooner. Hackers targeted the United Nations, the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency as well as several governments and American corporations. In fact, out of the total 72 organizations targeted, 49 are based in the United States. McAfee suspects that it’s another government that’s been doing the hacking, and experts say signs point to China.
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How Did We Miss the World’s Largest Cyber Attack? - Technology - The Atlantic Wire
- We’ve been distracted by the inconsequential breaches by Anonymous. McAfee’s vice president of threat research Dmitri Alperovitch thinks that some of cyber security resources have been misplaced
- China, if culpable, is damn good at hacking. Mike Lennon at Securityweek points to a 2010 report that claims China is engaging in “the single largest, most intensive foreign intelligence gathering effort since the Cold War.”
- The U.S. government is incapable of defending itself from cyberattacks. We pointed out in June that the Pentagon seems pretty confused about how to fight a cyber war.
Posted April 13, 2012 at 8:01am in cyberwar cyberattack hacking hackers penentration security network it cyber attack china usa
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