Chinese hackers switched targets to U.S. experts on Iraq

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9249590/Chinese_hackers_switched_targets_to_U.S._experts_on_Iraq

By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld
July 7, 2014

A sophisticated Chinese hacker group that had been stealing information 
from U.S. policy experts on nearby Southeast Asia suddenly changed targets 
last month to focus on the Middle East -- Iraq, in particular -- security 
researchers said Monday.

The group, called "Deep Panda," switched from exploiting one area of 
expertise to another because of the march of the Islamic State of Iraq and 
the Levant (ISIS) towards Baghdad, and the collapse of Iraq's security 
forces in the north and west of the country.

"The networks [of the think tanks] had been previously compromised, but 
Deep Panda pivoted to target systems and individuals with ties to the 
Middle East and Iraq," said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and CTO of 
CrowdStrike, an Irvine, Calif. security company, of the overnight switch. 
The shift in Deep Panda's targeting happened on June 18, the day that ISIS 
began to attack the strategically important oil refinery at Baiji, 155 
miles north of Baghdad.

China is the largest foreign investor in Iraqi oil fields, and draws about 
10% of its oil imports from the country. Most of China's oil investments, 
however, are in southern Iraq.

[...]



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