Over the course of almost a year, Chinese hackers were able to target, attack and successfully penetrate government contractors’ systems to steal sensitive information and, in one case, access systems onboard an American commercial ship.

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee spearheaded the release of the “Inquiry into Cyber Intrusions Affecting U.S. Transportation Command Contractors” report, which was released earlier this week, to determine whether the U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) was actually alerted of the breaches in its contractors’ systems. In nearly all cases, TRANSCOM had no idea.

From June 1, 2012 to May 30, 2013, 50 successful intrusions were made into contractors’ systems, and of those, 20 were attributed to an advanced persistent threat (APT). But that wasn’t the most disconcerting finding, according to the report’s executive summary.

“Of those APT-linked intrusions, TRANSCOM was made aware of only two, a troubling finding given the potential impact of cyber intrusions on defense information and operations,” the report said.

TRANSCOM manages the global movement of U.S. troops and equipment. Its stored information and systems particularly interest foreign governments during peaceful times, the report says, because it could allow them to unsuspectingly burrow into a computer network that would be essential in times of war.

Among the discovered incidents was one case in which the Chinese military infiltrated a TRANSCOM contractor between 2008 and 2010, allowing it to steal emails, documents, user passwords and computer codes. Another attack on the Civil Reserve Air Fleet gave the Chinese military documents, flight details, credentials and passwords for stolen encrypted emails.

Read the Full Article: Source – SC Magazine
http://www.scmagazine.com/chinese-hackers-breach-50-us-govt-contractors-systems-in-one-year/article/372673/

source not found