Tag Archive for: Asia

Chinese hackers cast wide net for trade secrets in US, Europe and Asia, researchers say

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The hackers targeted blueprints for producing materials with broad applications to the pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors, according to Boston-based security firm Cybereason. The firm discovered the activity last year but said the hacking campaign dates to at least 2019, and it suggested that reams of data could have been stolen in the interim.
The research is an unsettling reminder of the scope of the cyber threats facing US businesses and government agencies as the Biden administration attempts to thwart them. For all of the attention on potential Russian hacking due to the war in Ukraine, China’s digital operatives have been very active.

“It’s clearly industrial espionage, IP [intellectual property] theft at the highest level,” Assaf Dahan, Cybereason’s research lead, told CNN.

Asked to respond to the Cybereason report, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, claimed that China “will never encourage, support or condone cyber attacks.”

“China opposes groundless speculation and accusations on the issue of hacker attacks,” Liu added. “If the firm really care [sic] about global cyber security, they should pay more attention to the cyber attacks by the US government-sponsored hackers on China and other countries.”

Cybersecurity researchers, and US officials, have for years accused Chinese spy and military agencies of hacking and stealing trade secrets.

China “has a massive, sophisticated cyber theft program,” FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate alleged in a speech last week to the American Hospital Association, “and it conducts more cyber intrusions than all other nations in the world combined.”

The FBI declined to comment on the Cybereason report.

US officials and cyber-intelligence analysts point to China’s “Made in 2025” plan — an ambitious state plan for achieving economic dominance — as a rubric for the types of companies whose data Chinese hackers have targeted.

The plan, released in 2015, calls for advancements in manufacturing in the aerospace and biomedical fields, among several others. The Justice Department has in the years since unsealed indictments accusing Chinese hackers of targeting those very sectors.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-US…

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Cyber extortion and ransomware top risks – Asia Insurance Review

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Cyber extortion and ransomware top risks  Asia Insurance Review

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Ransomware attacks double in UK in 2021 – Asia Insurance Review

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Ransomware attacks double in UK in 2021  Asia Insurance Review

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Could attack vectors used in Russia and Ukraine cyberattacks target Southeast Asia?  

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There is a myriad of attack vectors today that continue to cause problems to organizations. In fact, the two biggest ones to organizations for years are malware and ransomware.

According to Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape Report, threat intelligence from the second half of 2021 revealed an increase in the automation and speed of attacks demonstrating more advanced persistent cybercrime strategies that are more destructive and unpredictable.

The report also showed that threat actors continue to attack organizations with a variety of new as well as previously seen ransomware strains, often leaving a trail of destruction. Old ransomware is being actively updated and enhanced, sometimes with wiper malware included, while other ransomware is evolving to adopt Ransomware-as-as-Service business models.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine defines exactly what modern warfare involving attack vectors is all about. While armed conflict on the ground continues to be the main focus, the cyber warfare in the conflict is probably the biggest ever witnessed in the world.

Both countries have been using hackers and cybercriminals to launch cyber attacks on each other. While the world’s largest cybercriminal groups have pledged their support to Russia, Ukraine has appealed to hackers and hacktivists in the hacker network to defend them and also launch counter-attacks.

Both sides have been getting positive responses from the hackers. Hacker groups like Anonymous have already launched several successful cyberattacks on Russia while pro-Russian ransomware gangs have also crippled infrastructures and websites in Ukraine.

One attack vector that has been making headlines is the Hermetic Wiper malware. The malware can wipe out all the data on the system it has infected. What makes it more concerning is that the deleted data is unrecoverable. Some cyber security experts feel that this malware has spread widely and could potentially wreak havoc outside of Ukraine.

While the malware is focused in Ukraine, there is a strong possibility that the attack vector could be adopted by cybercriminals to launch attacks in other parts of the world. For example, Southeast Asian businesses, which are prone to…

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