Targeted trojan attacks against German government (Updated x2)

From F-secure:

Yesterday Der Spiegel magazine broke the story

As is typical in cases like this, the malware was sent to key employees via e-mail as booby-trapped DOC and PPT files, and the stolen data was sent out to unknown location via servers located in China.

We highlighted the risk of attacks like this in our video lecture last March. The video was recorded pretty much exactly at the time when these attacks were taking place.

We are aware of at least two other similar attacks against governments in Europe. about targeted attacks against the German ministry of the interior.

The Germans suspect that the Chinese government is behind the attacks but the Chinese ambassador in Berlin refutes the claims as "irresponsible accusations without any foundation".

BONUS: China 'gravely concerned' by Germany hacking reports (Darkreading.com)

Just one more tip: just google for "Titan Rain". ;-)

UPDATE (29/08/2007): More details from this english spiegel.de article.

The so-called "Trojan" espionage programs were concealed in Microsoft Word documents and PowerPoint files which infected IT installations when opened, SPIEGEL reported. Information was taken from German computers in this way on a daily basis by hackers based in the north-western province of Lanzhou, Canton province and Beijing. German officials believe the hackers were being directed by the People's Liberation Army and that the programs were redirected via computers in South Korea to disguise their origin.

German security officials managed to stop the theft of 160 gigabytes of data which were in the process of being siphoned off German government computers. "But no one knows how much has leaked out," a top official told SPIEGEL.