Report Details Hacks Targeting Google, Others

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
February 3, 2010

Until now we've only known that the attackers got in through a vulnerability in Internet Explorer and that they obtained intellectual property and access to the Gmail accounts of two human rights activists whose work revolves around China. We also know a few details about how the hackers siphoned the stolen data, which went to IP addresses in Taiwan. About 34 mostly undisclosed companies were breached.

Now a leading computer forensic firm is providing the closest look so far at the nature of the attacks, and attackers, that struck Google and others. The report never mentions Google by name, or any other companies, but focuses on information gathered from hundreds of forensic investigations the firm has conducted that are identical to what we know about the Google hack.

What the information indicates is that the attack that hit Google is identical to publicly undisclosed attacks that have quietly plagued thousands of other U.S. companies and government agencies since 2002 and are rapidly growing. They represent a sea change from the kinds of attacks that have commonly hit networks and made headlines.

"The scope of this is much larger than anybody has every conveyed," says Kevin Mandia, CEO and president of Virginia-based computer security and forensic firm Mandiant. "There [are] not 50 companies compromised. There are thousands of companies compromised. Actively, right now."

Mandiant released the report last week at a closed-door cybercrime conference, sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department, in an effort to make companies aware of the threat.