By Mercy Imali
Hackers gained access to more than a dozen global telecoms companies and mined large amounts of personal and corporate data, Investigators from U.S.-Israeli cyber security firm, Cybereason said the attackers compromised companies in more than 30 countries. They directly linked the hackers to the Chinese Government.
Lior Div, chief executive of Cybereason said, “For this level of sophistication it’s not a criminal group. It is a government that has capabilities that can do this kind of attack.”
The hackers managed to infiltrate the internal IT network of the Telcos, allowing the attackers to customize the infrastructure and steal vast amounts of data.
Cybereason said in a blog post that in some instances, they managed to compromise a target’s entire active directory, giving them access to every username and password in the organisation. They also got hold of personal data, including billing information and call records.
He added that China was increasingly targeting telcos in Western Europe. China has repeatedly denied involvement in any hacking activity.
European nations have heavily criticized China Western for its actions in cyberspace, warning that Chinese hackers have compromised companies and government agencies around the world to steal valuable commercial secrets and personal data for espionage purposes.