Lessons from the hack attack on The New York Times

February 04, 2013

The New York Times' description of a cyberespionage campaign waged against the news media company by Chinese hackers demonstrates the importance of assuming criminals will eventually break into a computer system, and the best defense is to detect the intrusion as soon as possible. Last week, The Times disclosed that hackers had persistently attacked its computer systems for four months, and had stolen passwords for reporters and employees. Rather than boot the hackers immediately, The Times chose to study their movements in order to build better defenses against them. The attacks coincided with an investigative piece the newspaper published October 25, 2012 on business dealings that reaped several billion dollars for the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister. Alerts for any organization The lessons learned from the attack applies to any organization targeted by hackers with a level of sophistication often financed by a nation-state. Potential victims typically include defense contractors, multinational corporations, the military, think tanks, and government agencies. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.csoonline.com/article/728083/Lesson_learned_in_cyberattack_on_The_New_York_Times