Chinese state hackers stole sensitive information from Israeli defense system

Between 2011 and 2012, hackers allegedly broke into companies working on technology for Israel’s defense program ‘Iron Dome’, which is supposed to protect the country against missile attacks. The hackers allegedly stole large amounts of documents.

The attacks took place between October 10, 2011 and August 2012 at major technology companies working for Israel’s defense such as Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. That writes security blog KrebsonSecurity in response to information from security company Cyber ​​Engineering Services Inc. That company believes the attacks came from China.

CyberESI is said to have connected to the infrastructure that the hackers had set up and discovered that large amounts of sensitive material had been captured from drones and missiles, including the Arrow 3 missile. The hackers allegedly sought information about Israel’s Iron Dome program, the country’s missile defense system.

The hackers allegedly entered the network of Israel Aerospace Industries in April 2012 via rogue email messages and the attack is said to match that of the Chinese “Comment Crew”, a group of hackers working on behalf of the government, also known as PLA Unit 61398. The same unit is said to have stolen terabytes of data from at least 141 companies and organizations, including in Europe, security firm Mandiant claimed early last year. The US has charged five prominent members of the unit with espionage.