German media is buzzing with news headlines that a group of companies operating in its region was targeted by a cyberattack launched by Chinese hacking group.
Public Broadcaster ARD has specified in its news post that hackers targeted Hotels group Marriott, BASF, airliner Lion Air, Chemical firm Shin-Etsu, Siemens, Shampoo maker Henkel and Pharma company Roche with a malware called Winnti having the potential to access the computer network of the victims.
ARD specified in its news update that the source code of Winnti was the same which was used by the Chinese government on its adversaries in the past.
News is out that all the victim companies managed not to lose sensitive info by shutting down the systems in time after infection and so the disruption was meager.
As all the companies sell highly sophisticated and qualitative equipment they are termed as ‘Blue- Chip’ companies in the business world.
Reason to target Blue chip companies by hackers was simple- to steal highly sensitive info to create an economic and political crisis in the region.
Note- Winnti malware was created by a Chinese group hailing with the same name and was till date targeting companies operating in the video gaming industry. Then the objective was to steal the source of the online gaming projects and digital certificates along with new conceptual ideas.
