Updates to this story
Hackers in China are causing havoc among computer systems of five multinational oil and gas companies, according to a new report by McAfee.
Security outfits have warned that this type of attack could get lot worse as multinationals continue to prod the Chinese government.
McAfee said in its Night Dragon whitepaper that hackers have stolen bidding plans and other critical proprietary information. This can be used to detrimental effect and give competitors an advantage.
It could not name the five petrochemical and oil companies as it says they are clients.
George Kurtz, CTO, said in a blog post: "We have strong evidence suggesting that the attackers were based in China. The tools, techniques, and network activities used in these attacks originate primarily in China. These tools are widely available on the Chinese Web forums and tend to be used extensively by Chinese hacker groups."
He warns that well-coordinated, targeted attacks such as Night Dragon are "orchestrated by a growing group of malicious attackers committed to their targets," and "are rapidly on the rise."
Kurtz adds that targets have now "moved beyond the defence industrial base, government, and military computers to include global corporate and commercial targets."
This was a sentiment shared by a top security expert, who does not wish to be named, who warns that attacks will get worse unless companies find a way to strongly secure files and networks.
"It's no secret hackers are getting smarter and China is a breeding ground for people who want to use their talents for malicious gain or, in their eyes, to teach money making corporations, or those that they see as 'unethical,' a lesson."
Soon multinationals that are seen to cross a line, "or dare I say the Chinese government, could see a similar hack. We expect attacks to expand to utility companies - something that has already begun - and to phone networks."
The hack was traced back to China via a server leasing company in Shandong Province that hosted the malware and to Beijing IP addresses that were active from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Beijing time.
According to McAfee the hackers wormed their way into the computers of companies based in Kazakhstan, Taiwan, Greece and the United States through one of two ways. Either through a public website, or through infected emails sent to company executives. Once the hackers were in they would install remote administration software that gave them complete control of the systems.
And they've been playing the game for at least two to four years, using their way in to grab
financial documents related to oil and gas field exploration and bidding contracts.
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When a human “earns” an income, amongst the things he buys with that income will be items which have the legacy of something living. As such, just because someone has “the money”, what gives him the right to participate in the taking of another’s life and speaking of life, to what extent could life be measured/determined to be insignificant? At this point, vegens had better take a step back and not start celebrating because vegeterianism is about turning food into a religion, the politics of the blinded in faith. Afterall, should there be “reincarnation” and “Evolution”, keeping chickens as they are will not enable them to become “higher”. That is not the same as killing chickens for the sake of killing, of course. To be able to value absolutely is the main problem of humanity and when we lacked the means to act in an absolute manner, let alone be absolute, not only will we be repetitively doing the same old thing and expecting a different outcome, we will actually be addicted to our concepts/attachments.
The duty/purpose of humans is to evolve from our transient state into a state of permanence. Once into that realm, we are then able to discriminate absolutely and not relatively. That which lacks absoluteness has no true meaning because when an entity is always relating, he is only gambling - forever seeking something higher but never, ever, getting the “real there” - because he lacks reality/purity within his desire in the first instance. A seemingly Chicken & Egg situation but not when we start realising/affording passage to the Morality innately built within us all. It is not only stupid-dumb to cut your wrists, it is immoral. No human needs a quack/priest/saviour to tell him that. Neither do we need scholars to tell us that we cannot wear 2 pairs of shoes at any one time although “Health & Safety” saviours are doing just that, of course. [It would be cheaper and more efficient to ask these lunatics-cum-egomaniacs to line up and have all licked their feet in the manner of “fish-nipping therapy” and then fire/discharge the whole truly dumb lot. Talk of improving the mental health of a nation, that is the one to go for - consigning the Mothering Fathers-cum-Fathering Mothers into the genetic wasteheap].
For those who are fearful-greedy to own/have control of the “hackers”, realise that the “alternative” is just a balancing force against those who are able to manipulate others through the deception that is ”Our Law”. Those whose brain is still shackled by their conditionings or their ego ought to realise asap the meaning of, say, Capitalism and Communism, oka The Human Dichotomies. Forget about the seemingly “gone cases”, for all have to face their own reality. Even though many are seemingly at a disadvantage, let Divinity does His-Her job and let the individual does his. If The Sun can keep all going for eons, our problems are merely one of concept - the concept that there is right and wrong within nothing/relativity. For Divinity/Reality, because He-She is always right, there are no rights and wrongs too unlike Devolution’s version of right & wrong which is one of making concepts out of realities. Put it another way, The Bookie destroys because that is His job whereas Divinity seemingly destroys in order to give those who have little chance, another chance. Justice only exists within Permanence because within Permanence, justice is a principle and not a concept. You wanna be cruel to others, just wait until your moment of cruelty arrives but guess what, that cruelty has elements of innocence such that your cruel situation will moved another to help you - the one who has lacks cruelty - regardless of whether the lesson will be learnt/realised or not, a principle being a principle and not some relative nonsense born of sympathy or “Health & Safety”. Hack on and Greed on too for when fatigue finally sets inside the ping-pong match, some will start questioning as to their reality of playing ping-pong forever and a day.