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Chinese Hackers Strike Energy Companies
angry tapir writes "Chinese hackers working regular business hours shifts stole sensitive intellectual property from energy companies for as long as four years using relatively unsophisticated intrusion methods in an operation dubbed 'Night Dragon,' according to a new report from security vendor McAfee."
Reader IT.luddite links this informative PDF from CERT.
More power to the people, eh?
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
All your BTU are belong to US.
Yours In Odessa,
K. Trout
So the article detailing unsophisticated intrusion methods itself requires you to allow cookies before it's readable? Firefox, Opera, and IE all open a blank page if you refuse to accept their little offerings. So English majors...it is ironic?
Oh and bonus points for throwing a pdf in there too.
...and all that was found were the words: "You must construct additional pylons".
the secrets stolen improved Chinese efficiency (sorry IP holders!). Terrible (for everyone else) if it allows China to consume more fuel. TFA doesn't provide much detail on the nature of the secrets.
Sounds more like the name of a McAfee marketing campaign.
The "sensitive intellectual property" turns out to be 18,384 files that employees had ripped from CD and DVD. The MPAA and RIAA estimate it's collectively worth $835,682,912, but I think they're exaggerating.
From TFA:
Further, the attacks appeared to originate from computers on IP (Internet protocol) addresses in Beijing, between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time there, suggesting that the culprits were regular company employees rather than freelance or unprofessional hackers, McAfee said in its report.
Or maybe those responsible has pwned some computers at a business, which were only turned on between 9 and 5. While McAfee's conclusion is possible, I wouldn't consider it likely without some other evidence supporting it.
Don't tell me to get a life. I had one once. It sucked.
The mainland Chinese really will do anything to win. I've seen it repeatedly with my own eyes. I think it's got something to do with having to deal with the cognitive dissonace of thinking you're the master race, while nursing a massive inferiority complex viz-a-viz the West.
What I find amusing, is their apparently thin skins -- although when it comes to doing all these totally immoral things and losing tons of face, they don't show any shame at all.
Maybe the only way to deal with this kind of moral squalor we see so often from the mainlanders, is to trumpet their misdeeads from the hilltops as loudly as possible; red Chinee have no morals, but they DO have a honour/shame culture, and will avoid doing the wrong thing if they will be called out on it.
except for them it's typical. for example, a turkey is (literally translated as) a "fiery chicken".
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
So the news is always, China "steals" from the US. Is this really the rule, and the US never "steals" from China? Is it really that black-and-white?
They already own 'em.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
"Operation Night Dragon"?
Wait a minute, you mean the Chinese hackers are now naming their operations? These guys were probably harvesting gold in WoW a few months ago, and now they're rock stars.
The Internet is amazing.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Aside from the errors in the OPs post that you rightfully pointed out, and the flaw in his reasoning, you are saying that he/she is incorrect in his thesis, and that China (government and people's mentality) does not implicitly condone spying on other countries to conduct industrial espionage? Because it looks to me like they do.
CERT is putting this out there at the same time the government is trying to get permission to institute an internet kill switch? Sounds like they're trying to scare everyone so that there is less resistance to this...
Ok, it tool McAfee 4 years to discover this was happening. Does that really make you feel good about using them for your internet security?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
The mainland Chinese really will do anything to win. I've seen it repeatedly with my own eyes. I think it's got something to do with having to deal with the cognitive dissonace of thinking you're the master race, while nursing a massive inferiority complex viz-a-viz the West.
What I find amusing, is their apparently thin skins -- although when it comes to doing all these totally immoral things and losing tons of face, they don't show any shame at all.
As a general stereotype:
The West generally works on the concept of guilt: you feel bad internally via your own conscience. Other societies on this planet work on the concept of shame: it doesn't matter if you feel internally that the action was okay, but rather you feel bad from external voices.
Of course the West has the concept of social/peer pressure, and the East (?) does have the concept of a conscience, but it's a matter of degree. In the West the rebel is often accepted, but in the East not so much.
(At least that's always been my Reader's Digest version of the concepts.)
"Chinese hackers working regular business hours shifts stole sensitive intellectual property from energy companies for as long as four years...
Bbbuuuut as it turns out, most of the information energy companies have been working with o'er the past decade is about how to avoid expensive pollution fines, dealing with inhereted lawsuits, and technology geared toward making energy production cleaner and greener... so chances are the information is completely worthless to the Chinese for another hundred years or so.
The Admin and the Engineer
If McAfee discovers your companies being hacked, you know your own security must be absolutely horrible. It's like Snooki uncovering a major terrorist plot.
I don't see how the gov of china (we always blame the gov for anything happening in/from china) could benefit from this. This isn't banking data or military or trade secrets, it's power use/distribution stuff. Has anyone any idea on what you could use this for?
How soon they forget.
Ceci n'est pas un sig.
Lets presume that article tells the facts. How useful would this information be to the Chinese? Are they capable of digesting this? Are they gathering this data for the sake of gathering this data? There is no deliberation about the possible or actual damages done.
Critical information has been stolen, for example:
"Jones Residence,
Your power consumption January 2011 was 3.2% higher than January 2010.
The Power Company"
And I now notice you did not say one thing about the thesis, just the parent post's arguments, so my reply was a little hasty. So then the question remains, why does China (as a government, and as an assumed general consensus of the Chinese population) seem to condone conducting industrial espionage on the rest of the world? My own argument is pretty simple: they want to win.
Why isn't the CIA stealing anything?
Oh but they do. Just that, in times of economic trouble, cheaper to steal some info about their own citizens... you know? doing them a favor in not putting a pressure on the budget.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
will the Chinese code have the same bug that triggered the 2003 blackout?
security company McAfee has just discovered evil [insert nation here] hackers are attempting to [steal |destroy | shut down] valuable [information | infrastructure | systems ] in [insert high profile industry segment here] with [simple | sophisticated] hacking methods this [today | week | year]. to protect yourselves you must act immediately and purchase our products and services in a timely, recurring, and unending fashion.
Good people go to bed earlier.
except for them it's typical. for example, a turkey is (literally translated as) a "fiery chicken".
Automatic translation from engineering Chinese kept showing " water goat." Turned out to be hydraulic ram.
No wonder wow gold prices have been so high for the past few years. All the farmers have been preoccupied with less profitable information farming.
Most of the nicest, most caring people I've ever met are Chinese. All the Chinese from the mainland that I know are extremely hospitable, and will always help you out if you need something.
However, you probably shouldn't trust any Chinese companies backed by the PRC government with any valuable information. Or if you do trust them, know that the state companies have no loyalty to your company and they are always looking for a way to get ahead.
Haha no problem. From the looks of the moderation, it's apparently bash the Chinaman day regardless.
Snoooooze ....
Well, they also have that other thing where the US is in debt up to their eyeballs with them.