A U.S.-based global engineering firm was infiltrated by Chinese state-sponsored hackers who remained undetected for months, according to cybersecurity expert John Dwyer. The intrusion occurred through unmanaged AIX servers connected to the company's network. The hackers exploited security flaws, gaining full remote access and potentially compromising the supply chain.
John Dwyer, research director for cybersecurity firm Binary Defense, said in an interview on Wednesday that Chinese state-sponsored hackers were able to infiltrate the network of a U.S.-based global engineering firm and linger for months before they were discovered.
According to Dwyer, the Chinese intruders gained access to the network through “one of the victim’s three unmanaged AIX servers.”The Register inferred from Dwyer’s comments that the targeted company essentially forgot about the three old servers connected to its corporate network, creating a vulnerability for the Chinese hackers to exploit. All three of the servers were exposed to the Internet without adequate protection.
The hackers were reportedly in the system long enough to upload some data and create bigger gaps in security for themselves, effectively gaining “full, remote access to the IT network.” Among other dangers, this could have given them the ability to manipulate the company’s supply chain to produce deliberately defective products.
Dwyer offered extensive details about the havoc the Chinese hackers wreaked on network security, but did not specify whether they stole data from the targeted company or tried to sabotage its supply chain. He found some dry humor in the attackers’ apparent confusion over AIX, which looks a great deal like Unix, but did not recognize some of the standard Unix commands the intruders attempted to execute.
Chinese Hackers Espionage Cybersecurity Breach Engineering Firm Supply Chain Risk
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