Decade-long cyberspying likely tied to China-targeted Indian defence

New York, April 14, 2015: For over a decade, a cyber operation with likely ties to China spied on Indian defence, business and media operations, using malware hidden in emails or documents on topics of interest to the targets, according to a Silicon Valley-headquartered cyber-security company. “A decade-long operation focused on targets -- government and commercial -- who hold key political, economic, and military information about the region,” FireEye said on Sunday in a report on cyber espionage that covered India and South-East Asia. The spying “centred on Indian defence and military materiel topics”, the report said. “In particular, a number of spear phishing subjects have related to Indian aircraft carrier and oceanographic monitoring processes.” Tracking the cyberspying that started in 2005, FireEye said: “Such a sustained, planned development effort, coupled with the group’s regional targets and mission, lead us to believe that this activity is state-sponsored -- most likely by the Chinese government.” However, the Chinese government has denied it was involved in the cyberspying operation. "The Chinese government resolutely forbids and cracks down on all forms of hacker attacks. This position is consistent and clear," foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said in Beijing on Monday. "Hacker attack is a global issue which requires cooperative response from the international community rather than groundless finger-pointing and suspicion," Hong said. Contending that the cybersnoops were an advanced persistent threat (APT), FireEye dubbed them APT30.