State Sponsored Cybercrime
The Times of London is not mincing any words about state sponsored cybercrimes against UK business interests. The paper is reporting that Shell and Rolls Royce have been targeted by for cyberattacks:
Rolls-Royce and Royal Dutch Shell have fallen victim to Chinese espionage attacks, The Times has learnt.Sustained spying assaults on Britain’s largest engineering company and on the world’s second-biggest oil multinational occurred earlier this year as part of a campaign to obtain confidential commercial information, sources said.
News of the attacks on Rolls-Royce and Shell comes after a warning by Britain’s security services that China is sponsoring espionage against vital parts of the British economy, including breaking into big companies’ computer systems.
It is understood that Chinese-backed computer hackers broke into the internal computer network of Rolls-Royce in an attack that a security source said “nearly took them out”. Rolls-Royce engines are widely used by many of the world’s largest airlines and are deployed in transport vehicles of many Armed Forces in Nato, including those of Britain and the United States.
And Rolls Royce and Shell are not the only victims, according to MI5, the British foreign intelligence service.
Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5, has sent a letter to 300 chief executives and security chiefs in banks and accounting and legal firms telling them that they are under attack from “Chinese state organisations”, The Times revealed this weekend.A summary of the MI5 warning, posted on the website of the Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure, says: “The contents of the letter highlight the following: the Director-General’s concerns about the possible damage to UK business resulting from electronic attack sponsored by Chinese state organisations, and the fact that the attacks are designed to defeat best-practice IT security systems.”
State sponsored cybercrime is clearly another factor large corporations have to take into account when assessing risk. While they may have the resources to stay ahead of advisories, I wonder about smaller sub-contractors that have access to corporate networks or copies of valuable designs, plans and other forms of intellectual property.
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