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Sophisticated, Targeted Breakins Uncovered

Posted by kdawson on from the don't-answer-job-ads dept.

Ichabod writes "Sophisticated computer criminals stole data from Unisys, Booz Allen, L-3 Communications, Hewlett Packard, and Hughes Network Systems. It sounds like they used a combination of social hacking and undetected low-profile malware (reportedly NTOS.exe) to steal and encrypt sensitive data, and compromised Yahoo accounts to store and retrieve it. An international investigation appears imminent. And yes, unfortunately Reuters calls the criminals 'hackers,' further besmirching the once-revered title."

4 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. The only thing I find strange.. by i8myh8 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..is that they'd use Yahoo! Mail to retrieve the data. Gmail offers more space. Hrm. Poorly researched.

    1. Re:The only thing I find strange.. by jojoba_oil · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, the so-called hackers thought that "Do No Evil" was a command to those using Google's services. As such they went elsewhere.

      In all seriousness, I'd be willing to bet that they used compromised Yahoo! accounts for a few reasons: yahoo users are generally less computer-savvy (read: easier to compromise), they probably use gmail accounts themselves so they didn't want to draw attention there, and google has been rumored before to keep e-mails even after being deleted from the account.

  2. "to steal and encrypt sensitive data" by InvisblePinkUnicorn · · Score: 5, Funny

    See, hackers get a bad rap. These folks were kind enough to encrypt the sensitive data they found, so that no outside parties could get a look at personal records.

  3. Re:frequency by pegr · · Score: 5, Informative

    You want details? This trojan appears to be a variant of this nasty little bugger. (Warning: pdf). The link is to a detailed technical report on how it works, what it does, and how to decrypt data it encrypted. It was authored by Secure Science Corporation back in November of 2006.