More firms linked to Chinese cyber attack

 

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Posted on 15 Jan 2010 at 15:15

Adobe and Juniper Networks have said that they were the target of the same cyber attacks believed to have affected Google and at least 20 other firms from a variety of industries, including Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors.

On Tuesday, Google surprised the world when it said it would close its Chinese operations if the government prevented it from offering completely unfiltered search results on Google.cn.

Adobe released a statement saying that it was also recently targeted, although it didn't reveal where the attack had originated from.

"Adobe became aware on January 2, 2010 of a computer security incident involving a sophisticated, coordinated attack against corporate network systems managed by Adobe and other companies," said a statement on the company blog. We are currently in contact with other companies and are investigating the incident. At this time, we have no evidence to indicate that any sensitive information - including customer, financial, employee or any other sensitive data - has been compromised."

Juniper Networks also said that it was a target of the same attacks. In a statement, the firm said that it is "currently investigating a cyber security incident involving a sophisticated and targeted attack against a number of companies," and confirmed that it was the same attack which affected Google and others. Juniper did not disclose any details of the incident, so it's unclear whether its systems were compromised.

Gipson Hoffman & Panicone, a Los Angeles law firm representing Cybersitter in a software piracy case filed against China last week, said it too has been a victim of a targeted cyber attack originating from the country. However, this one doesn't appear to be related to the attack on Google since it only began on Monday.

"Beginning Monday evening, attorneys at Gipson Hoffman & Panicone began receiving several targeted customised Trojan emails made to appear as if they were sent by other members of the firm," said a press release from the firm. "Unlike ordinary spam or virus emails, Trojan emails are specifically constructed to retrieve data from the target's computer and often allow the sender to gain access to the target's computer or to the company's servers. It has not yet been determined whether any of the attempts were successful."

The law firm said that Cybersitter was attacked last June, while the attacks on its own computers were reported to the FBI and are under investigation.