Chinese hackers linked to breach of control systems used in electric grids

by Lisa Vaas 

breached Telvent's network, the company has informed its customers in a letter. Telvent is the maker of an industrial control system that remotely controls smart grid networks used in portions of the electric grid. Telvent told its customers that on Sept. 10, it learned that hackers had breached its internal firewall and security systems, implanted malicious software, and stolen project files.

.....Experts detected digital fingerprints implicating a Chinese hacking group that has been tied to cyber-espionage campaigns against Western interests.

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KrebsOnSecurity cited Joe Stewart, director of malware research at Dell SecureWorks, who said that website and malware names mentioned in a more recent letter from Telvent can be traced to a Chinese hacking team known as the "Comment Group."

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Researchers told Bloomberg that during two months of monitoring last year, targeted companies spanned a vast scale as data "bled from one victim to the next":

...from oilfield services leader Halliburton Co. (HAL) to Washington law firm Wiley Rein LLP; from a Canadian magistrate involved in a sensitive China extradition case to Kolkata-based tobacco and technology conglomerate ITC Ltd. (ITC)

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Evidence indicates that at least 20 organizations have been harvested for data, many of whose secrets could give China a leg up on its path to becoming the world’s largest economy.

Bloomberg cited unnamed security experts who said that the breaches have sprung data leaks in major oil companies, who've lost seismic maps charting oil reserves, while patent law firms have been squeezed for clients' trade secrets and investment banks have been targeted for market analysis regarding global ventures of state-owned companies.

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Meanwhile, the Obama adminstration and Congress have grown increasingly vocal about Chinese and Russian cyber espionage and attacks, with the White House close to completing the first draft of a cybersecurity executive order designed to bring about stronger cyber security around the nation's water, electrical and transportation systems.

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