[LINK] China’s military is tied to new hacking software (Short Version)

[Stephen Loosley]

China’s military is tied to new hacking software (Short Version via NYTimes email)

An invisible cyberattack tool called Aria-body, with alarming capabilities, has been linked to the Chinese military, according to a report from an Israeli cybersecurity company.

Hackers who used it to remotely take over a computer could copy, delete or create files and carry out extensive searches of the device’s data. The tool featured new ways of covering its tracks to avoid detection.

Aria-body was used by a group of hackers, known as Naikon, that has been traced to the Chinese military. Its targets include the office of Mark McGowan, the premier of Western Australia, and government agencies and state-owned technology companies in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Brunei.

Beijing has maintained that the government and military do not engage in hacking for the theft of trade secrets.

Quotable: “We know that China is probably the single biggest source of cyberespionage coming into Australia by a very long way,” said Peter Jennings, a former Australian defense official who is the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

--