Chinese group pries into sensitive files inside and far outside the mainland
Defense Industrial Base // Education // Energy // Global Organizations // Government (U.S.) // Government (Foreign) // Technology // Telecommunications
Cyberspies allegedly from China have hacked high-profile targets in 40 countries for at least the past four years.
“Based on collected intelligence, we estimate the group size to about 50 individuals, most of which speak Chinese natively and have working knowledge of the English language.”
NetTraveler, the surveillance malware in play, steals sensitive data as well as log keystrokes, and retrieve file system listings and various Office or PDF documents.
Known targets of the malware include Tibetan/Uyghur activists, oil industry companies, scientific research centers and institutes, universities, private companies, governments and governmental institutions, embassies and military contractors.
Most of the infected computers were located in Mongolia, followed by India and Russia. The United States is among the countries hit, as is China. The group has infected victims across multiple industries including government institutions, embassies, oil and gas industry, research institutes, military contractors and activists.
Recently, the hackers have been most interested in data on space exploration, nanotechnology, energy production, nuclear power, lasers, medicine and communications.