Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    Chinese Nation-State Hackers Target U.S in Operation TradeSecret

    By
    Sean Michael Kerner
    -
    April 6, 2017
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) website was allegedly infiltrated by Chinese nation-state threat actors, according to a new report from Fidelis Cybersecurity. The attack against the NFTC site has been dubbed ‘Operation TradeSecret’ by Fidelis and is seen as an attempt to gain insight into individuals closely associated with U.S trade policy activities.

      Fidelis is attributing the Operation TradeSecret attack to a group that is also known in the security research community as APT10 and Stone Panda. The same attack group has also been recently actively attacking government sites in the U.K and Japan in an attack that PWC UK and BAE Systems refers to as, Operation CloudHopper.

      With Operation TradeSecret, the attackers were able to infiltrate the NFTC site and embed malware on several registration pages. The malware used is identified by Fidelis as being the Scanbox reconnaissance framework. The Scanbox malware is used by attackers to gain insight into victim’s activities and information. According to Fidelis, the attack ran from February 27 to March 1 of this year. John Bambenek, Threat Systems Manager at Fidelis said that his company has informed the NFTC of the incident.

      “At a high-level, this method of attack is common and has been seen against the defense industrial base and telecoms by APT10 for many years,” Bambenek told eWEEK.

      From a detection perspective, Bambenek explained that Fidelis’ security tools are informed by the company’s threat intelligence team, a portion of which is dedicated to nation-state adversaries.  

      “Those tools derive an immense amount of metadata about every session, so that we can find distinct fingerprints that point to a specific actor,” Bambenek said. “We are also able to apply intelligence retroactively, so as we discover new threats we can look backwards weeks and months to see if attacks have been successful in the past.”

      From an attribution perspective for the new Operation TradeSecret campaign, there are a number of attributes that clearly point the finger at Chinese nation-state attackers. Bambenek commented that Scanbox is a tool exclusively seen previously being used by Chinese nation-state sponsored actors.  

      “The specific obfuscation and other techniques in this instance have been used in the past only by APT10,” Bambenek said. “It is possible that another actor somehow got their hands on these tools and are mimicking the techniques, but it is not likely.”

      At this point, it’s not entirely clear how the Operation TradeSecret attackers were actually able to infiltrate the NFTC site and embed the Scanbox malware. Bambenek commented that Fidelis can only speculate as to how this happened to their website. That said he noted that in general terms, there are a number of different things organizations can use to help defend themselves. 

      Bambenek recommends that organizations use a strong web-application firewall (WAF) to prevent against attacks on their webserver and database layer and have integrity monitoring on webpages to detect unauthorized changes. Additionally, he suggests that organizations work with their peers in the industry to share threat data, so that soft targets around government can collaboratively protect themselves against foreign intelligence services.

      Sean Michael Kerner
      Sean Michael Kerner is an Internet consultant, strategist, and contributor to several leading IT business web sites.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Careers

      SThree’s Sunny Ackerman on Tech Hiring Trends

      James Maguire - June 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Sunny Ackerman, President/Americas for tech recruiter SThree, about the tight labor market in the tech sector, and much needed efforts to...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×