Just three months after hacks by China’s People’s Liberation Army came to an abrupt halt, the country is once again attacking US targets, according to the New York Times. Hacks on organisations like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times ceased three months back when it came to light that the perpetrators had stolen data from American companies and government agencies.
Now, however, according to security experts and American officials, attacks have started once more from Unit 61398, China’s hacking HQ.
A report by Mandiant, a private security company, has revealed that “attacks had resumed”, though the company was unwilling to name the affected parties because of privacy agreements. It did, however, admit that “the victims were many of the same ones the unit had attacked before”. That doesn’t really narrow it down much, and could suggest targets ranging from Coca-Cola Company to Lockheed Martin. What is clear though is that the Chinese certainly aren’t holding back, as the Times points out:
[O]ver the past two months, they have gradually begun attacking the same victims from new servers and have reinserted many of the tools that enable them to seek out data without detection. They are now operating at 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the level they were working at before.
The news comes as a blow for the Obama administration, which recently took the bold step of naming and shaming China, for the frist time officially fingering the company for hacking the US. Clearly, China has no intention of stopping the attacks, but it remains unclear what the best course of action is for the US government. Until that’s decided, it’s clearly something that big businesses are going to have to face up to. [New York Times]
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