Chinese Hackers Gained Full Access to US Chamber of Commerce’s Systems [REPORT]

A report from The Wall Street Journal this afternoon says that hackers in China breached the US Chamber of Commerce’s [1] network, and had administrator access to the entire system as early as 2009. They reportedly established a number of back-doors that let them continue to have access until they were discovered by the FBI in May 2010.

While it cannot be said exactly how much of the organization’s information was viewed or stolen, the report cites Chamber officials as saying that emails of four employees who worked on Asia policy had been ‘stolen.’

The Chamber’s response to the breach involved ‘unplugging and destroying some computers and overhauling its security system,’ although official say they continue to see unusual activity, such as back in March when a Chamber printer started printing pages of Chinese text all of a sudden!

It’s uncertain whether or not this particular security breach has any connection to the Chinese government. But it’s interesting to note that the government websites there have also been coming under attack, so China is not immune from such headaches either.

Looking back on 2011, this was a year that hackers (and ‘hacktivists’) made a ton of headlines, and not just in China. One of the most notable in the technology world was when Sony fell victim to a cyberattack that breached its PSN network back in April.

[Image: impactlab]