International companies facing cyber attacks linked to China

A US cybersecurity company says a group of hackers linked to China have carried out a cyber attack on nine international companies, one of which is based in the United States.

A report by Palo Alto Networks, a company based in Santa Clara, California, said that hackers had been actively trying to steal passwords from these companies, with the aim of securing long-term access to their networks.

The report also states that from September 22 to early October, hackers had compromised at least nine companies operating in sectors such as technology, defense, healthcare, energy and education, but none of these companies were named in the report. One of the companies is located in the United States.

Ryan Olson, the representative of Palo Alto Networks, the company that is in charge of security issues, said that “any company doing business with the Pentagon can have a range of data in emails related to defense contracts, which can be be of interest to foreign espionage. ”

Nicholas Eftimiades, an assistant professor at Penn State University who previously served as a CIA intelligence officer, told VOA that the tactics used in these attacks are commonly used against foreign governments. In this case, the hacker group used tactics against commercial interests on a global scale.

Mr. Eftimiades added that if these attacks had not been detected, this group would have gained access to the data of thousands of companies and then carried out espionage operations using them.