Chinese Hacker Targeted 27 Universities To Access Military Secrets

One of the chinese hacker who has hacked over two dozen universities in the US and around the world to gain an access to maritime military secret research, according to a report by cybersecurity firm iDefense, which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

This hacker has sent the universities spear phishing emails doctored to appear as if they came from their partner universities, but they unleashed a malicious payload when opened. 

The Universities are considered as easier targets than US military contractors, and they can contain some sort of useful military research.

Around Twenty Seven universities which were found to have been the targeted by the malicious chinese hacker group, which includes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, and other colleges in Canada and Southeast Asia.

The iDefense has not named all the schools being targeted by the hacker group, that was due to the ongoing investigations report, but some of the anonymous sources told the WSJ that Penn State and Duke University were two of the other targets.

The cyber attacks that have focused on specially the universities that either has studied underwater tech or had the faculty with the relevant backgrounds. Many of these ties to the US largest oceanographic research institute, which itself ties to the US Navy’s warfare center. iDefense has said that they were highly confident the institute has been breached.

ONGOING ATTACKS SINCE 2017

The group has given several nicknames by the security researchers, such as; Temp.Periscope, Mudcarp, or Leviathan. Their connection with the Chinese government is yet unclear, but because the group appears to be the targeting US military data, the analyst believe that the Chinese government is likely be the sponsor.