Signs Point to China in US Research Facility Hack

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/10/signs-point-china-us-research-facility-hack/122897/

By GWYNN GUILFORD
QUARTZ
OCTOBER 16, 2015

Tech companies, healthcare giants, defense contractors, top universities, 
the US government—you name it, Chinese cyber-spies have probably hacked 
it. And now, it seems likely, we can add one of the world’s preeminent 
marine research groups to the list.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution sustained a “sophisticated, targeted 
attack” that looks to have originated from China, according to Christopher 
Land, the organization’s general counsel and leader of its internal 
investigation.

If the perpetrator is indeed from the People’s Republic, it marks the 
latest in a series of high-profile hacks that US officials say has 
resulted in theft of US commercial secrets, potentially sensitive 
government information, and military data. With the US threatening 
sanctions, Chinese president Xi Jinping recently vowed not to commit 
commercial cyber-espionage—a pledge US officials are watching closely for 
signs of follow-through.

WHOI isn’t a company or a government agency, but given its close ties with 
the US military and the National Science Foundation, it’s not exactly a 
regular research institution, either. Its vast cache of research holds 
data on everything from bowhead whale habitats and plankton to 
hydrographic surveys and oceanic oxygen levels—as well as classified work 
WHOI does with the Navy and the US defense department.

[...]

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