Some time back, Operation Aurora – the most ultra sophisticated hack attack ever was uncovered and the blame game between Google and the Chinese Government followed. While the spotlight shifted to the political picture, the scary part is that these attacks were far more brutal than what Google and others assessed.

NetWitness – a computer security company has unfolded the whole story and it claims that the attacks affected as many as 2,411 companies. The compromised data ranges from intellectual property, classified documents to credit card transaction details. Clearly, the picture is a lot worse than what was initially claimed to be.

The attacks started in late 2008 when hackers operating a command center in Germany managed to intrude corporate networks. Shortly thereafter, they had access to confidential data of 10 US government agencies. NetWitness claims that it uncovered the hacking scheme behind ‘Operation Aurora’ on January 26th while installing safeguard measures for a large corporation.

While Google pointed the finger at China, the recent report suggests that an Eastern Europe Criminal group might be the mastermind of these cyber attacks. It’s scary to say the least and I hope that cyber police can get hold of these intruders sooner rather than later.

Related articles

• Two Chinese schools implicated in Google Aurora attacks (go.theregister.com)
• China’s Biggest Hacker Den Shutdown by Police (sporkings.com)
• Operation Aurora – Beginning Of The Age of Ultra-Sophisticated Hack Attacks! (sporkings.com)