Hackers in China had access to U.S. Chamber of Commerce systems for possibly more than a year, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
All information stored on the interest group’s systems were compromised, including information about its more than 3 million members, six weeks of email from four employees who worked on Asia policy and fewer than 50 members’ communications. The intruders used tools that allowed them to search the chambers’ documents by key word, though the investigation has not determined what documents were retrieved based on those searches.
Sources familiar with the matter told the Journal that evidence indicated the hackers were operating from China. One said the hackers appeared to be state-supported. The intrusion was shut down in May 2010 after the FBI noticed the Chamber’s data was being stolen by servers in China.
Hackers who appear to be operating from China have recently accomplished similar intrusions, though nothing this broad. A report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission last month detailed a number of such incidents in which hackers in China stole Internet data from other countries and concluded that some of these incidents suggest state support.
When asked about the intrusion that was shut down in May 2010, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy told the Journal that cyberattacks are prohibited by Chinese law and the issue shouldn’t be politicized.
Since the attack, the Chamber says it has beefed up its Internet security measures. For instance, employees who travel to certain countries, including China, are required to leave the mobile devices they use daily at home and are instead issued loaner devices.
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