Privacy, Security & Virus Information

McAfee Uncovers Massive Global Cyber Attack

It has come to light that high-profile, supposedly well-protected information belonging to bodies like the United States government, the UN and the International Olympics Committee has been the subject of hacking and data corruption for up to five years. Luckily, McAfee uncovered the so-called “Operation Shady RAT” early in August of 2011. So: what is the most worrying part of this scandal? The fact that confidential, secured information was accessed by an outsider? No. In actual fact, the most shudder-inducing angle on this story is that the hacking is thought to have been undertaken by another government.

While McAfee has declined to point the official finger at a specific culprit for the serious hacking offenses, many sources seem to think that China may be responsible for this illegal online activity. Others are pointing to Russia as the culprit, but sources such as Jim Lewis from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies feels that China is more likely to be responsible for this security breach, because the information accessed by the hackers would be “of particular interest” to Beijing.

However, others have stepped in to defend China in this case. High-profile figures, such as Graham Cluley from Sophos, think China has been wrongly accused, and that Beijing is burdened with false accusations all too often. In addition, spokespeople on behalf of China have denied any awareness of, or involvement in, the hacking.

So why are fingers pointing at a government agency, rather than a group of Internet yobs? The answer lies in the specific, sophisticated nature of the hacking itself. A technique known as “spear-phishing” was used in order to target not whole organisations, but specific people within them. So, the hackers must have known which people would have had the information they were looking for.

In addition, the information taken by the hackers suggests that this is the work of another government. The information mostly appears to be the type of stuff you’d expect to be possessed by the Home Office – potential sites for oil exploration, email archives, government networks, that kind of thing. As a result, commentators on the story are placing the blame on another government, rather than a group of citizens, as the information wouldn’t really be of interest to average people like you and I.

Recently in the news, hacking groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec have dominated the technology section of the newspaper because of their involvement in hacking scandals across the world. However, McAfee’s discovery of Operation Shady RAT demonstrates that these two aren’t the only threats to our online safety, and that continued vigilance is required.

 

Article by Connor Sephton, 26th January 2012. Content correct at the date of publication.