China (APT10): Chinese hackers belonging to the group APT10 have been linked to series of attacks that targeted major tech giants around the globe. From 2014-2017, there were series of attacks which were detected by these companies and all are reoccurring. The campaign, which was named “Cloud Hopper,” was targeting the cloud computing services that these technology firms use. The group targeted the weaknesses in the cloud and took advantage of the western companies by exploiting their vulnerabilities. This campaign was the subject of a December indictment of two Chinese nationals linked to the hacking campaign. During the procedures, the case did not state all of the companies that were being targeted in these attacks. Now, the names of all the different companies have been released and they include Hewlett Packard Enterprises, IBM, Fujitsu, Tata Consultancy Services, NTT Data, Dimension Data and Computer Sciences Corporation. Every one of these companies are parent companies to other companies which were also targeted, such as the largest shipbuilder for the US Navy, Huntington Ingalls Industries as well as Sabre, the largest online reservation booking system. The group targeted these companies with the hope of being able to steal industry secrets.
Analyst Notes
APT10 has a reputation of carrying out attacks with the main goal of corporate espionage, despite a pact made between the US and China in 2015 which prohibits cyberespionage. The reports of these companies being targeted and attacked brings to light in many cases that there are still major vulnerabilities within cloud-based software and products. Despite how good the security measures are that are being put in place to prevent these types of attacks are, they are not stopping all of them. It is likely that we will continue to see APT10 target the United States in attacks whose main goal is cyberespionage.
