The Alarming Rise Of Electronic Espionage

Sailors on the watch-floor of the US Navy Cyber Defence Operations Command monitor. (Credit: US Navy)

Digital Spies: The Alarming Rise Of Electronic Espionage -- Popular Science

Foreign agents are stealing stealth technology, hacking heads of state, and sabotaging American companies. And while many of these attacks are traced to China, electronic espionage is an accelerating scourge that knows no national boundaries.

The first warning that hackers had penetrated the American oil company came soon after the initial breach, in the summer of 2009. The computer help desk received complaints from employees who were locked out of their accounts or whose computers had already been logged onto.

Then the complaints abruptly ceased: The digital spies had obtained an administrator password and were intercepting help-desk tickets, unlocking accounts, and notifying users that their problems had been fixed. With that access, the hackers copied thousands of confidential emails—including those of top executives—and transmitted them to China in massive files late at night, after the oil company's employees had left for the day.

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My Comment: And this type of espionage is just starting ....