Canada’s Nortel Subjected to Hack by Chinese Attackers for a Decade

Hackers from China allegedly attacked the PC-network of Nortel Networks Ltd., an erstwhile telecommunications major, since 2000, reported Ecotech Ninja on February 14, 2012.

Essentially, during this attack, 7-or-more passwords were stolen that top executives used prior to the hackers downloading technical and research papers, business plans, sensitive information and company e-mails.

Brian Shields an ex-employee of Nortel and the leader of an internal investigation into the breach reported that the hack first became evident during 2004 after which many more sustained for years following 2004.

Shields together with Nortel papers, which The Wall Street Journal (TWSJ) reviewed, indicated that the hackers even buried a spyware program deep into the PCs of some employees that resulted in the investigators really losing years before they could perceive the problem's wide prevalence. Shields stated that the hackers virtually accessed the entire stored data with ample time at their disposal, while they merely required determining the things relevant for their purpose. TWSJ published this on February 14, 2012.

Furthermore, according to Shields' confirmation, Nortel PCs kept on transmitting data and files over to certain Shanghai-located Internet Protocol addresses for 6 months, reportedly ever-since the initial uncovering of the spying software.

Additionally, Shields disclosed that the hackers managed in gaining access to plentiful things from Nortel's computer systems as well as that it depended solely on them what way they wished utilizing those stolen data.

Eventually Nortel requested it be declared bankrupt during 2009, but the company apparently failed in disclosing the hacking incidents it had encountered over years to purchasers who proposed to buy the firm's property.

And although as per reports, the assaults emanated from China, according to Graham Cluley, security analyst at Sophos, condemning the country right away in the absence of enough clues wasn't appreciable.

Meanwhile, the reported hack targeted at Nortel occurred after cyber-espionages vis-à-vis Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Google, RSA, and American defense contractors, amongst more.

One high-profile intelligence officer from USA stated that Nortel's hacks were similar to the long-term, multi-pronged type of assaults already witnessed. Thus, according to him, an enhanced R&D would be something good, published TWSJ.

Related article: Canada - A Major Stimulator of Spam, Says Cisco

» SPAMfighter News - 2/23/2012