From at least April to September, hackers embarked on a widespread international industrial espionage campaign against some 48 companies in over 20 countries, though most of the attacks concerned chemical companies and affected computers in the U.S., according to a report detailing the offensive released by security firm Symantec on Monday. (H/T: The Register.)Symantec, the company that sells Norton Antivirus software, explains that the attacks, which it has codenamed “Nitro,” were carried out when the hackers spammed employees of the target companies with emails purporting to be “meeting invitations from established business partners.” The emails contained an attachment which was actually malware, the backdoor trojan PoisonIvy, which infected the computer.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=105032