McAfee uncovers 'biggest cyber attack in history'

Security company McAfee have uncovered the largest cyber attack in history, affecting 72 organisations across the world. The series of attacks targeting the United States, Taiwan, India, South Korea, and the International Olympic Committee to name but a few - are thought to have taken place as far back as 2006 by a lone "state actor".

McAfee uncovered the hacking campaign in March 2010, when researchers discovered logs of the attacks while reviewing the contents of a "command and control" server that they had discovered in 2009 as part of an investigation into security breaches at defense companies.

McAfee Vice President of Threat Research Dmitri Alperovitch said the attacker sought data that would give it military, diplomatic and economic advantage.

"If you look at an industry and think about what is most valuable in terms of intellectual property, that is what they were going after," Alperovitch stated, listing email archives, negotiation documents and schematics for electronics as examples.

"What is happening to all this data ... is still largely an open question. However, if even a fraction of it is used to build better competing products or beat a competitor at a key negotiation (due to having stolen the other team's playbook), the loss represents a massive economic threat."

Though Alperovitch declined to identify the suspected state, Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, claims China is most likely responsible for the online raids due to the specific targets uncovered in the report. For example, the attack on the Olympic Committee of an undisclosed Asian nation lasted 28 months in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics and the information acquired would be of particular interest to Beijing.

William Maclean, in an analysis of the attacks, writes that "stigma-conscious companies" are still unlikely to report cyber raids due to fear of 'reputational implications', and calls for "tougher digital defences".

Speaking to Reuters, Alperovitch said "Companies and government agencies are getting raped and pillaged every day. They are losing economic advantage and national secrets to unscrupulous competitors."

"This is the biggest transfer of wealth in terms of intellectual property in history. The scale at which this is occurring is really, really frightening."