Report: Foreign hackers raid QinetiQ North America

[Ian Corrigible]

Bloomberg: Chinese cyberspies compromised 'most if not all' of QinetiQ’s research (http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-01/china-cyberspies-outwit-u-s-stealing-military-secrets.html)

Highlights:
-- Infiltration took place over a 3-year span
-- 'Several terabytes' of data stolen
-- Research areas compromised include UAVs and US Army aviation condition based maintenance (CBM)
-- QinetiQ reportedly dismissed initial warnings of a coordinated infiltration
-- In the first 2 1/2 years, the hackers gathered more than 13,000 internal passwords
-- QinetiQ’s internal corporate network could be accessed from a parking lot using an unsecured Wi-Fi connection
-- QinetiQ employees deleted software intended to track hacker attacks, with the approval of the company’s IT staff
-- The hackers are believed to have used QinetiQ's systems to gain back door access to Redstone Arsenal and other US government agencies
-- Russian hackers also spent 2 1/2 years stealing secrets from QinetiQ via a secretary’s computer

This report comes three months after Mandiant's (http://intelreport.mandiant.com/?gclid=CL3k06_-8LYCFfR9Ogodg2wAkA) report into the activities of People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398.

I/C

[cattletruck]

Why am I not surprised.

I am aware of an Australian company that is doing work for a big American automobile manufacturer, except they aren't really doing the actual work, they are re-outsourcing it to China instead. This allows the big American automobile manufacturer to bypass trade restrictions/bilateral arrangements/labour laws and get the work done on the cheap while the Australian company takes a substantial cut after costs (the project is worth $8m p.a.).

It is all hush-hush and is working so well from an executive profit taking POV that the big American automobile manufacturer has started offering the same Australian company more work from its other offices in North America.

Who needs hackers when you have greedy executives.

[Courtney Mil]

And people here are wondering why the UK will not be allowed access to the code for F-35?

[LowObservable]

CM - Funny story...

As is apparent, your humble correspondent is not known IRL (as the kiddies say these days) as a big supporter of JSF. He was therefore a little surprised to get a LinkedIn invite from a recently retired Very Big Wheel from LockMart. Does said VBW want to confess all, or apologize for all the nasty things he's said?

Or, more likely, did VBW select the LinkedIn option to connect LinkedIn with his entire email address book?

Now, I do know a little about cybersecurity, and I know what cybersecurity experts would say about this practice, particularly on the part of someone with top-level access to a huge defense program with highly classified aspects.

It might be wrapped up in cyber jargon, but they would say "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US ALL, YOU DUMB-:mad: MONKEYFIGHTER?"

[hval]

Evening Courtney,

I do believe you will find that the Chinese already stole the codes from LM and BAE a few years back. This year there is some evidence that China has been hacking the telemetry from test flights. The Pentagon seems to get hacked quite often. Elbit Systems has also been hacked.

Whilst the Chinese were hacking LM they not only took data on the F-35, but also on other projects that include the F-22, F-16, Aegis and THAAD.

What it does mean is if the USA doesn't give us the code we can just buy it from China on the cheap.