Cyber attacks: "Biggest Transfer of IP in History" Points To China

After eating a rat, one should stay vigilant.
Photo: Tan Fugui

Computer security company McAfee discovered that during a 5 year time span 72 organisation were infiltrated via the internet. Jim Finkle reports for Reuters about what Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee Lab's vice president of Threat Research calls "the biggest transfer of wealth in terms of intellectual property in history." Read Finkle's article here

Victims of the attacks were between 2006 and 2011:

• USA 49 times
• Canada 4 times
• South Korea 3 times
• Taiwan 3 times
• Japan 2 times
• Switzerland 2 times
• UK 2 times
• Indonesia 2 time
• Vietnam 1 time
• Denmark 1 time
• Singapore 1 time
• Hong Kong 1 time
• Germany 1 time
• India 1 time

Also many international organisations were targeted, including the International Olymic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency; and an array of companies, from defense contractors to high-tech enterprises, the computers of the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Because of the character of the cyber attacks a state actor is suspected. Mr [James] Lewis, cyber expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was quoted saying: "Everything points to China." read Mr Lewis' report Cybersecurity Two Years Later January 2011. China is one of only countries in the world that enough knowledge in the field of cyber attacks to pull this off. And China is one of the countries that did not fell victim to this RAT (Remote Access Tool) attack.

Read McAfee's White Paper: 'Revealed Operation Shady RAT' (pdf, 14 pages).

UPDATE August 3, 2011:
Also normal citizens are victims of Chinese cyberattacks. Robert Lee of the Korea Herald reports that 35 million social security numbers of Korean civilians float in Chinese cyberspace, because of hacking attacks, read here.