Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Hacking attacks from China hit energy companies worldwide

Global Energy Cyberattacks: “Night Dragon”

Security researchers at McAfee have sounded an alarm for what is described as “coordinated covert and targeted cyberattacks” against global oil, energy, and petrochemical companies.


McAfee said the attacks begain November 2009 and combined several techniques — social engineering, spear phishing and vulnerability exploits — to load custom RATs (remote administration tools) on hijacked machines.

The attacks, which McAfee tracked to China, allowed intruders to target and harvest sensitive competitive proprietary operations and project-financing information with regard to oil and gas field bids and operations.

We have identified the tools, techniques, and network activities used in these continuing attacks—which we have dubbed Night Dragon—as originating primarily in China. Through coordinated analysis of the related events and tools used, McAfee has determined identifying features to assist companies with detection and investigation. While we believe many actors have participated in these attacks, we have been able to identify one individual who has provided the crucial C&C infrastructure to the attackers.

The company released a white paper to outline the attacks, which included the use of SQL injection and password cracking techniques.

Refer here for more details.

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