Russian Hackers Tracking Ukraine Crisis Stole NATO Data
By Michael Riley Oct 14, 2014 12:01 AM ET
Russian hackers targeted sensitive documents related to the recent NATO summit in Wales, using a security flaw in Microsoft Windows that affects tens of millions of computers, according to a report by a security firm.
The attack was part of a two-year Russian espionage campaign reflecting Russia’s growing appetite for intelligence on the U.S. and European response to its moves in Ukraine and elsewhere. The hackers were after so much information in such a rush that they made mistakes that have partially lifted the veil on the country’s spying efforts, according to iSight Partners, the Dallas-based security firm that uncovered the campaign.
The state-sponsored hackers hit dozens of computers belonging to the governments of Ukraine and at least one Western Europe nation, NATO and a Polish energy company, in some cases using a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Windows, one of the most common computer operating platforms in the world, iSight analysts found.
A zero-day flaw, so called because programmers are aware of it for zero days when it’s first exploited, likely allowed the hackers to infiltrate otherwise secure computers, grabbing e-mails, Power Point presentations and encryption keys for sensitive documents, iSight researchers said.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-14/russian-hackers-tracking-ukraine-crisis-stole-nato-data.html