cyberattacks

China is refuting a report that names its military as the source of recent cyberattacks against the U.S.

A report released this week by U.S. security firm Mandiant linked the People's Liberation Army to a large number of cyberattacks against U.S. corporations, government agencies, and other organizations. The report specifically pointed the finger at Chinese military Unit 61398, noting that digital forensic evidence led investigators to the building housing that unit.

China's response?

As expected, the government has criticized the report, citing a lack of hard evidence. In a press conference held by China's … Read more

While many security experts have been pointing the blame at China for the recent wave of cyberattacks on U.S. companies and newspapers, Bloomberg reports that some of the malware attacks actually may be coming from Eastern Europe.

Investigators familiar with the matter told Bloomberg they believe a cybercriminal group based in either Russia or Eastern Europe is carrying out the high-level attacks to steal company secrets, research, and intellectual property, which could then be sold on the black market.

Evidence that the attacks may be coming from Eastern Europe is the type of malware being used by the hackers, … Read more

The most remarkable aspect of a new and deeply troubling report about network intrusions originating in China is how commonplace they've become. They're no longer a rare occurrence: A single Shanghai-based hacking organization has reportedly compromised at least 141 companies across 20 industries.

Those figures come from a new report from security firm Mandiant, which revealed the global accomplishments of a group of professional hackers dubbed APT1. Mandiant has assembled convincing evidence that APT1 is actually part of People's Liberation Army Unit 61398, an organization so far uninterested in defacing or deleting data from U.S.-based … Read more

A zero-day security flaw in Adobe Reader and Acrobat is being exploited through a series of targeted attacks against vulnerable computers, Adobe Systems said yesterday.

In a security bulletin, Adobe confirmed that the vulnerabilities could cause Reader and Acrobat to crash, potentially opening the door for an attacker to gain control of the system.

"Adobe is aware of reports that these vulnerabilities are being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks designed to trick Windows users into clicking on a malicious PDF file delivered in an email message," the company revealed in the bulletin.

Adobe said it's … Read more

Hackers broke into several television stations' Emergency Alert Systems this week and broadcast that zombies were "rising from their graves" and "attacking the living."

While a comical hoax, security consultancy firm IOActive warns that this type of behavior is dangerous and not that hard for hackers to do, according to Computerworld. This week it's zombies, but next time it could be something that might make people really panic, such as an anthrax or terrorist attack.

IOActive says that devices used by TV and radio stations to air emergency alerts have critical vulnerabilities that make them … Read more

A handful of journalists who cover Myanmar received warnings from Google over the past week. The Web giant told them that their Gmail accounts might have been hacked by "state actors" or "state-sponsored attackers" and that they should change their passwords and tighten their security settings, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Google said that it has systems in place to detect possible state-sponsored malware or hacking but would not give the Wall Street Journal further information on how these systems work.

The Myanmar government has now responded to these allegations and denies any involvement in … Read more

Several U.S. media outlets experienced a massive wave of cyberattacks allegedly coming from the Chinese military over the last few months. While some newspapers have claimed that their networks are now safe, the Wall Street Journal may still be a victim of the online onslaught.

The newspaper's owner Rupert Murdock tweeted today, "Chinese still hacking us, or were over weekend."

Chinese still hacking us, or were over weekend.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed last week that it had been the target of cyberattacks in recent months because of its coverage … Read more

The wave of high-level cyberattacks continues as the Federal Reserve confirmed that one of its internal Web sites was hacked into today, according to Reuters.

"The Federal Reserve system is aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product," a Fed spokeswoman told Reuters. "Exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue. This incident did not affect critical operations of the Federal Reserve system."

Apparently the hackers accessed data associated with specific individuals, according to Reuters.

This attack comes on the heels of the hacking group … Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy has confirmed that its computer systems were hacked into last month. According to The New York Times, the federal agency sent around an internal e-mail on Friday telling its employees about the cyberattack.

"The Department of Energy has just confirmed a recent cyber incident that occurred in mid-January which targeted the Headquarters' network and resulted in the unauthorized disclosure of employee and contractor Personally Identifiable Information," the e-mail said.

The agency said that it is working to figure out the "nature and scope of the incident" but that so far … Read more