Google Hack Attack Was Ultra Sophisticated, New Details Show

Hackers seeking source code from Google, Adobe and dozens of other high-profile companies used unprecedented tactics that combined encryption, stealth programming and an unknown hole in Internet Explorer, according to new details released by the anti-virus firm McAfee.

"We have never ever, outside of the defense industry, seen commercial industrial companies come under that level of sophisticated attack," says Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research for McAfee. "It's totally changing the threat model." The attackers used nearly a dozen pieces of malware and several levels of encryption to burrow deeply into the bowels of company networks and obscure their activity, according to Alperovitch. "The encryption was highly successful in obfuscating the attack and avoiding common detection methods," he said. "We haven't seen encryption at this level. It was highly sophisticated." The hack attacks, which are said to have targeted at least 34 companies in the technology, financial and defense sectors, have been dubbed "Operation Aurora" by McAfee due to the belief that this is the name the hackers used for their mission.