Pierluigi Paganini
August 03, 2015
The NBC News has published in exclusive a secret NSA map showing the locations of the cyber attacks carried out by Chinese hackers over a five-year period. Every marker in the secret NSA map represents a successful attack that resulted in data theft, the list of targets is long and includes private firms and US critical infrastructure.
According to the NBC’s sources, the NSA map was part of a briefing in February 2014 that was prepared by the US Intelligence.
The NSA was warning principal companies of the country, including Google and Lockheed Martin, about possible attacks of Chinese state-sponsored hackers. The US intelligence was also aware of the interest of Chinese authorities in air traffic control systems.
Chinese hackers have targeted practically every American industry, cyber espionage campaigns targeted Government Offices (i.e. State Department, OPM), media agencies and US contractors.
The map counts more than 600 cyber attacks, mainly concentrated in the major metropolitan areas and industrial hubs such as the Silicon Valley.
“The map uses red dots to mark more than 600 corporate, private or government “Victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage” that were attacked over a five-year period, with clusters in America’s industrial centers. The entire Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston is blanketed in red, as is California’s Silicon Valley, with other concentrations in Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, L.A. and Detroit. The highest number of attacks was in California, which had almost 50.” states the NBC News.
The greatest number of cyber attacks was concentrated in California, the map reports nearly 50 successful cyber assaults.
The NBC News speculate that the NSA is able to track Chinese cyber espionage campaigns and knows exactly which companies were targeted by the foreign hackers.
(Security Affairs – NSA map, China)
