McAfee reveals huge series of cyberattacks

A cyber-espionage operation lasting many years penetrated 72 government and other organizations, most of them in the US, and has copied everything from military secrets to industrial designs, according to technology security company McAfee.

In a report released on the eve of a major conference on hacking, McAfee said that it had obtained access to a computer that controlled the operation and documented a pattern of attacks dating back at least as far as 2006. McAfee did not name most of the targets but said they included six US government agencies and 13 defence contractors. It said some classified military secrets had been stolen and that logs showed that the UN, the International Olympic Committee, Olympic committees of several countries and a large US-based news organization were among the victims. Dmitri Alperovich, McAfee vice-president, said the nature of many of the targets strongly suggested backing by a national government, since there would be no obvious economic benefit for crime groups. People briefed on McAfee’s research said the most logical suspect was China, which was not among the Asian countries that were home to any of the victim institutions. Two South Korean companies and a government agency, as well as companies in Taiwan and Vietnam, were compromised.