Case Based in China Puts a Face on Persistent Hacking(3)

“Luckycat,” after the login name of one of the other attackers, and issued its own report. But Trend Micro’s report provides far more details. The two firms were unaware that they were both studying the same operation.

Trend Micro’s researchers said they were first tipped off to the campaign three months ago when they received two malware samples from two separate computer attacks — one in Japan and another in Tibet — and found that they were both being directed from the same command-and-control servers. Over the next several months, they traced more than 90 different malware attacks back to those servers.

Each attack began, as is often the case, with an e-mail intended to lure victims into

opening an attachment. Indian victims were sent an e-mail about India’s ballistic missile defense program. Tibetan advocates received e-mails about self-immolation or, in one case, a job opening at the Tibet Fund, a nonprofit based in New York City. After Japan’s earthquake and nuclear disaster, victims in Japan received an e-mail about radiation measurements.

Each e-mail contained an attachment that, when clicked, automatically created a backdoor from the victim’s computer to the attackers’ servers. To do this, the hackers exploited security holes in Microsoft Office and Adobe software. Almost immediately, they uploaded a directory of the victims’ machines to their servers. If the files looked

enticing, hackers installed a remote-access tool, or rat, which gave them real-time control of their target’s machine. As long as a victim’s computer was connected to the Internet, attackers had the ability to record their keystrokes and passwords, grab screenshots and even crawl from that machine to other computers in the victim’s network.

Trend Micro’s researchers would not identify the names of the victims in the attacks detailed in its report, but said that they had alerted the victims, and that many were working to remediate their systems.

A spokesman for India’s Defense Ministry, Sitanshu Kar, said he was not aware of the report or of the attacks it described. Fumio Iwai, a deputy consul at the Japanese consulate in New York, declined to comment.

As of Thursday, the campaign’s servers were still operating and computers continue to leak information.

“This was not an individual attack that started and stopped,” said Nart Villeneuve, a researcher that helped lead Trend Micro’s efforts. “It’s a continuous campaign that has been going on for a long time. There are constant compromises going on all time. These guys are busy and stay busy.”