Chinese hackers initiate an unprecedented and cordinated cyberattack on Canadian government

[blizz]

An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government from China has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information, and forced at least two key departments off the internet, CBC News has learned.

The attack, first detected in early January, left Canadian counter-espionage agents scrambling to determine how much sensitive government information may have been stolen and by whom.
Other hacking cases

February 2011: U.S. computer security firm McAfee reports hackers operating from China stole sensitive information from Western oil companies in the United States, Taiwan, Greece and Kazakhstan, beginning in November 2009.

March 2010: Citizen Lab and the SecDev Group discover computers at embassies and government departments in 103 countries, including the Dalai Lama's office and India, were compromised by an attack originating from servers in China. They dub the network involved "GhostNet."

January 2010: Google claims cyberattacks from China have hit it and at least 20 other companies. Google shuts down its China operations.

June 2009: A top-secret memo by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns that cyber attacks on government, university and industry computers have been growing "substantially."

February 2008: Quebec provincial police say they dismantled a computer hacking network that targeted unprotected computers around the world, including government computers.

Highly placed sources tell CBC News the cyberattacks were traced back to computer servers in China.

But they caution there is no way of knowing whether the hackers are Chinese, or some other nationality routing their cybercrimes through China to cover their tracks.

So far, officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government have been all but mum on the breach of security.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2011/02/16/pol-weston-hacking.html#ixzz1EC4dEDgP

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