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Japan's biggest defence
contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has become the victim of a
malware-based hack attack.
The firm said that the attack resulted in the infection of 10 of its
sites across Japan,
including its submarine manufacturing plant in Kobe
and a facility in Nagoya
which makes engine parts for missiles. In total 45 network servers and 38 PCs
became infected with eight strains of malware, including Trojan horse programs,
the Daily Yomiuri reports.
News of the
security breaches emerged over the weekend. Mitsubishi said the circumstances
of the intrusions – first detected in mid-August – are under investigation,
with a report due by the end of the month. In the mean time the firm is playing
down suggestions that the malware may have been used to successfully extract
industrial secrets via compromised systems.
A Mitsubishi
spokesperson told Reuters:
"We've found out that some system information such as IP addresses has
been leaked and that's creepy enough.
"We can't rule
out small possibilities of further information leakage but so far crucial data
about our products or technologies has been kept safe," he added.
Attacks against
defence contractors have appeared frequently in the news of late. Earlier this
year Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications said they had each come under
attack via an assault that relied on data stolen during the earlier RSA
megahack.
Presumed industrial
espionage attacks against defence contractors and energy firms are often blamed
on China,
an accusation that the country strongly denies. Evidence that China is involved tends to come in the form of
the origin of the attack (easily faked using a compromised system in China) or
regional quirks and the languages used in hostile code (harder to spoof but
still inconclusive). ®
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