Chinese hackers target US, India in biggest cyber crime

In the biggest ever series of cyber attacks uncovered to date, hackers were found to have broken into networks of the Indian government, United Nations and US defence companies, with security experts pointing to China as the culprit.

Targets for the intrusions in a five-year campaign covered 72 major organizations around the world, including the governments of India, US, South Korea, Vietnam, Asean, IOC and the world anti-doping agency, The Washington Post reported, quoting a McAfee report.

The networks breached included UN secretariat in Geneva, a US Energy Department lab and 12 major US defence firms engaged in top secret futuristic weapons system, the report said.

"The cyber snooping appears to have been going on for several years," the report said, tracing the hacking to at least one "state actor" behind the attack, but declined to name it, though the security experts said the evidence pointed to China. "We were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators," McAfee vice president Dmitri Alperovitch said in a 14-page report released on Wednesday.

"What is happening to all this data...is still largely an open question. However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat competitors at key negotiations, the loss will represent a massive economic threat," he said. Alperovitch said McAfee had notified all the 72 victims of the cyber attacks, which were now under investigations by law enforcement agencies around the world.

He declined to give the names of the government departments hacked or those of companies infiltrated. "This is the biggest transfer of intellectual property in history and the scale at which this is occurring is frightening," the McAfee official said.

Cyber Attacks, Hackers, Networks of Indian Government, United Nations, US Defence Companies, China, India, US, South Korea, Vietnam, Asean, World Anti-doping Agency, US Energy Department, Secret Futuristic Weapons System