back to article APT1, that scary cyber-Cold War gang: Not even China's best

Shanghai hackers APT1 - outed this month in a high-profile report that linked them to the Chinese military - may not be China's top cyber-espionage team despite its moniker. Security experts say the team is more prolific than leet. The gang, believed to carrying out orders from state officials, was accused of siphoning …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    as easy as pie !

    JUST NEED to walk right in with a Lady Gaga CD, then with a smile, walk out again with what ever you like

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: as easy as pie !

      Have you tried to walk in 3inch platform stiletto heels?

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: as easy as pie !

      Not in the Obama administration. One of that guy's most important concerns is to go after non-approved leaks.

      1. asdf

        Re: as easy as pie !

        Yeah it makes you wonder if he would hang a scapegoat minor official out to go to jail for an approved leak that also just happens to break the law. There is some precedent for this.

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Trollface

    Dishonor! You not hide tracks?

    "The Comment Crew are, in general, not terribly sophisticated, But there are some people in there who are quite skilled not just in the malware they create but in their ability to hide their tracks. You are always going to get some junior members in any hacking or security group who are less skilled."

    That's sure going to cause some ruckus in the oriental haxxors crew!

  3. Robert Helpmann??
    Childcatcher

    Shanghaied!

    Sorry, couldn't resist.

    Hacking has evolved from personal adventure to criminal exploit to government backed attacks and is getting on into corporate activity. Everyone is having fun. My guess is that it will soon be easier to report who isn't hacking each other rather than who is. Pretty sad, really.

    Is this the world we want our children to inherit?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Shanghaied!

      > Is this the world we want our children to inherit?

      2013. Not using reasonably secure free OS.

    2. Quxy
      Coat

      "Want"?

      Dunno about you, but I'm teaching *my* children hacking skills!

    3. Euripides Pants

      Re: Shanghaied!

      "Is this the world we want our children to inherit?"

      Nope, that's why I bought Mars. Just sent NASA an eviction notice...

  4. Marcel
    Stop

    More critical reading is needed

    The evidence linking hackers to a government or to a certain group is very thin or non-existent. What seems to be happening is that all of the thousands of hacks that happen every day are grouped into categories, then labeled as being from a common source.

    All this is being done by governments with political agendas, soon-to-be-unemployed army generals looking for the next war and security vendors with gear/services to sell.

    I take all this with a grain of salt. Meanwhile, all these companies moaning about being attacked are wise to teach their employees not to get caught in phishing attempts, install the latest patches on *all* of their equipment and start using encryption a little bit more (anyone using S/MIME or PGP?).

    1. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: More critical reading is needed

      Try reporting hacking incidents and it's clear that the Chinese government is all for it. To start with, the network contacts for Chinanet and many of the Chinese schools have been fake for about a decade.

      South Korea and Taiwan are probably involved too. Maybe not directly or intentionally, but they have incredible numbers of bots that are constantly hacking away at every IP address on the Internet. As with China, the network contacts for HiNet (Chunghwa Telecom) and KORNET (KT Corporation) are not functional.

      1. Allan George Dyer

        Re: More critical reading is needed

        @Kevin - did you talk to the network contacts in Chinese and Korean? Have you junked any Chinese or Korean spam? That might have been your reply.

  5. Nanners
    Big Brother

    China isn't scary

    Russia and related countries are. the Russians are the most elite computer experts I've ever seen.

  6. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Meh

    with the internet *everywhere* is next door to you.

    Curiously you never of the Japanese being a great hacking threat.

    Just a thought.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    1. why isn't this sort of thing considered an act of war or causing a diplomatic incident at the very least. I'm sure the hi-tech boffins who work for the US gov would know who it was who was doing it.

    2. Are they trying to tell us the countries like the US does not have it's own hacking teams/departments? I mean, really?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Remember when Hillary Clinton wanted the VISA card numbers of UN member snaffled? Nobody gave a f*ck.

  8. The Alpha Klutz

    if your business uses standard MICROSOFT network

    you think your so safe because you have a DMZ. No.

    Let me tell you that I think it's damn funny the Chinese now have all your files. They'll probably use them better anyway, the Chinese are smart people you know. Probably don't even pay for Windows if/when they do run it. Just like all the smart Indians who don't pay. It's only you litigious westerners that think its so kinky to go around paying for software.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cyber Squared ?? Don't make me laugh.

    Cyber Squared are NOT experts.

    I know an organisation that received an email from Cyber Squared over a known-insecure channel (given that the attack led to exfiltration of emails) notifying them that they'd been compromised as data had been found on a system Cyber Squared were cleaning. This email was cc'ed to another 2 organisations also apparently compromised. Fortunately this email arrived after the cleanup had taken place. Otherwise the bad guys might have realised they'd been rumbled and put in deeper compromises.

    Rule one: If you've discovered a 3rd-party breach, notify over a secure channel. Definitely NOT over the one that you know has been compromised. They may already know, and be preparing for the cleanup.

    Tossers.

    AC, obviously.

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