Middle East News

[mewpadmin]

China blamed for cyber attacks

Two Canadian government agencies' computer systems were infiltrated as part of a massive global cyber attack that spanned at least five years and was likely launched by a foreign government - widely suspected to be China.

The Canadian government was among 72 organizations, including the United Nations, U.S. government, defence contractors and other companies said to have been compromised.

Security company McAfee, which uncovered the security breaches, said Wednesday it believes there was one "state actor" behind the attacks but declined to name it, though one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China.

While specific victims were not named, the report said two government agencies in Canada had been targeted, as well as the Montrealbased World Anti-Doping Agency and a Canadian information-technology company.

The government agencies were infiltrated in October 2009 and January 2010. One attack lasted for six months, while the latter ended after only one month.

The anti-doping agency was compromised for 14 months starting in August 2009 and the info-tech company was infiltrated for four months in July 2008.

In January, the Department of Finance and Treasury Board confirmed hackers had sent senior officials emails linked to a webpage infected with a sophisticated virus that installed spy malware. They also sent PDF files that, when opened, unleashed more malicious code to target and download secrets.

The Harper government has publicly downplayed the extent of the Ottawa breach, but a recent report cites a Jan. 31 memo saying that "data has been exfiltrated and that privileged accounts have been compromised."

The finance department Wednesday couldn't say for how long their systems were compromised, nor what level of access the hackers were able to obtain.

read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/ ... story.html