China-based hacking group behind hundreds of attacks on U.S. companies

A group of between 50 and 100 professional hackers operating out of China has been systematically targeting businesses, military and government agencies around the world since at least 2009, security vendor Symantec said in a report released on Tuesday.

The group, called Hidden Lynx, is believed connected to the Operation Aurora espionage campaign of 2010 in which dozens of major companies, including Google and Microsoft, were targeted.

More recently, Hidden Lynx was associated with an attack on security vendor Bit9 earlier this year, and also with numerous “watering hole” attacks against hundreds of organizations in the United States.

The group has a long history of attacking organizations in the defense industrial base, financial services sector, education, government, supply chain and the engineering sector, Symantec noted in its report. More than half of the attacks have been against U.S.-based companies, but the group has been going after targets in other countries as well.

SOURCE: networkworld.com