It's Not Beijing's Hackers You Should Be Worried About, It's Moscow's

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/04/22/it_s_not_beijing_s_hackers_you_should_be_worried_about_it_s_moscow_s

By Shane Harris
Foreign Policy
April 22, 2014

When U.S. officials warn of the threat foreign cyber spies pose to 
American companies and government agencies, they usually focus on China, 
which has long been home to the world's most relentless and aggressive 
hackers. But new information shows that Russian and Eastern European 
hackers, who have historically focused their energies on crime and fraud, 
now account for a large and growing percentage of all cyber espionage, 
most of which is directed at the United States.

Individuals and groups in eastern Europe, and particularly in Russia and 
Russian-speaking countries, are responsible for a fifth of all cyber 
spying incidents in the world, according to a global study of data 
breaches conducted by Verizon, published on Tuesday. The spies are 
targeting a range of companies as varied as the global economy itself, and 
are stealing manufacturing designs, proprietary technology, and 
confidential business plans. The cyber spies steal information on behalf 
of their governments in order to manufacture cheaper versions of 
technologies or weapons systems, or to give their home country's 
corporations a leg up on their foreign competitors.

The report is based on information provided by computer security companies 
as well as the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland 
Security. Last year, it attributed nearly all incidences of cyber 
espionage -- 96 percent -- to sources in China. Russia and Eastern Europe 
didn't even rank in the findings. The United States is by far the biggest 
victim of cyber espionage, accounting for 54 percent of spying incidences, 
the report found.

The report's authors say the increase in spying attributed to Russia and 
Eastern Europe this year is partly the result of new sources of 
information that reveal more than was previously known about the long 
reach and sophistication of hackers in those countries. It's difficult to 
know precisely how much cyber espionage by Russia had gone undetected in 
the past -- Russian hackers have gone to great lengths to cover their 
tracks, unlike their counterparts in China, who have generally been easier 
to detect, said Alan Paller, the a cyber security expert at the SANS 
Institute.

[...]



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