For the first time in the history of cyber attacks, a China-based university serving Aviation industry has accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for hacking into its servers to steal intelligence related to aviation, aerospace and navigation study material.
According to ‘The Global Times’, Northwestern Polytechnical University based in Shaanxi Province of China was hit by an email phishing attack, resulting in data steal of information related to students and teachers studying and teaching in the Educational Institute.
The Chinese University claims that the incident might have taken place in one of the first two weeks of June this year. However, was detected on June 22nd and found to be an activity to deliver Trojan Horse Program.
China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and Internet Security 360 have launched a technical analysis of the incident and confirmed that it was an activity conducted by Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division, an intelligence wing of NSA and established in the year 1998. The attack was code named as “ShotXXXX” by the NSA and was led by Rob Joyce, the State Security Advisor, to the White House.
Taos’ key functions are breaking or shield a computer network from foreign invasions, keep a track of network traffic, and see that the privacy and security factors are never compromised. And see that no individual or group has access to phone calls, emails, network communications and messages in its network.
Information is out that about 140GB of data was leaked to hackers and it could prove more than the attack details unfold via a probe.
NOTE- Since, the year 2008, the NSA has been indulging in surveillance on other countries. The same was revealed by former NSA Contractor Edward Snowden, who is now taking asylum in Russia.
