It is getting to the point that those reporting acts of cyber aggression, particularly in the area of cyber espionage, think they are in a repetitive do-loop. It is the same story over and over again with the only difference being the list of victims.
The news of late has been the discovery of yet another sophisticated cyber attack that resulted in the collection of untold information, some general some sensitive, from the business community as well as defense contractors and government officials.
Aggressive cyber initiative(s) to steal intellectual property (are) so massive…they are stealing entire industries.”
One of the more concerning announcements came from an article in Bloomberg Businessweek. This article identifies several breaches that targeted what they called “solid-gold intellectual property.”
When you look at the mechanism of compromise as well as those involved most would agree with that characterization. The investigation suggests this cyber espionage network was comprised of over 760 organizations that span very large organizations, research and development activities in universities and the private sector through government executives.
All things being considered, multiple experts point to China as the most aggressive country when it comes to cyber espionage activities.
Brian Martin from Spy-Ops was quick to point out, “These are the latest cyber espionage activities that have been uncovered and not all of the activities that are ongoing have gone undetected.”
Cyber investigators believe this is part of an aggressive cyber initiative to steal intellectual property that is so massive one individual said, “They are stealing entire industries.”
It is clear, our nation’s economic future is under attack and we must take aggressive measures to protect and defend our information assets.
Kevin G. Coleman is a long-time security technology executive and former Chief Strategist at Netscape. He is Senior Fellow with the Technolytics Institute, where he provides consulting services on strategic technology and security issues.
Read other Cyber Intelligence articles by Kevin G. Coleman.