Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

Cyber Exploitation

Hackers in China Attacked The NYT for last 4 Months: NYT

Nicole Perlroth with a fantastic and, sadly, none too surprising article for The New York Times.  She says it best:

For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees.

All this over the Wen Jiabao, of course.  Apparently Chinese hackers targeted the NYT (and other media groups and corporations) by routing attacks through US universities. Just out of curiosity, I would really love to know which universities the Chinese picked.

Perlroth goes on to detail to the attacks, potentially linking them to the Chinese military.  I don’t want to go into depth here, as you should read the article, but this one gave me a hearty LOL:

Asked about evidence that indicated the hacking originated in China, and possibly with the military, China’s Ministry of National Defense said, “Chinese laws prohibit any action including hacking that damages Internet security.” It added that “to accuse the Chinese military of launching cyberattacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless.”

Last thought . . . I know they’ve always been a first-rate incident response company, but is this Mandiant’s coming out party?  I thinks so.

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