Chinese Hackers Steal Naval Warfare Secrets
Uploaded on 2018-06-14 in INTELLIGENCE--USA, INTELLIGENCE-Hot Spots-China, GOVERNMENT-Defence, FREE TO VIEW, NEWS-Cybersecurity News, TECHNOLOGY--Hackers
Cyber attackers sponsored by the Chinese government infiltrated a US Navy contractor’s computers, allowing digital thieves to access sensitive data related to secret Navy projects on a submarine anti-ship missile. The information stolen was stored on the contractor’s unclassified network despite being highly sensitive. According to a report, 614 gigabytes of material on a closely held project known as Sea Dragon were taken. Contracted for the military organization Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Sea Dragon aims to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on US submarines.
The contractor had been working for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, an R&D organisation dedicated to submarines and underwater weaponry based in Newport, Rhode Island.
The Chinese hackers breached the contractor's systems in January and February and made off with 614GB of data on signals, sensor data, crypto-graphic info, the Navy's electronic warfare library and material on a project known as Sea Dragon.
The latter remains secretive: The only information released by the DoD is that it will integrate an existing weapon system with an existing Navy platform.
The data was highly sensitive despite being located on the contractor's unclassified network; When aggregated, it could be considered classified, sources told The Washington Post. The Navy is reportedly investigating the breach with help from the FBI.
Cmdr. Bill Speaks, Navy spokesman, confirmed that measures exist which “require companies to notify the government when a ‘cyber incident’ has occurred,” as had occurred in this instance.
Experts have witnessed a recent “re-emergence” of China-based hacking groups that had seemed to have “gone dormant for a while,” said Cristiana Brafman Kittner, principal analyst at cyber-security firm FireEye.
China has increasingly grown not only as an economic cyber-threat, but an online menace to national security as well.
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