Chinese hackers take over fake water utility
Chinese hackers thought to be linked to the country's government were caught breaking into a United States water plant — without realising it was a decoy set up by a security researcher.
The MIT Technology Review said the project by Trend Micro security researcher Kyle Wilhoit shows the attacks, which took place in December last year by means of an infected Word document, represent "the most significant proof" of people actively trying to exploit vulnerabilities in industrial control systems (ICS).
According to Wilhoit who observed the attackers taking over the honeypot, "it was 100 per cent clear that they knew what they were doing." Known as APT1 or the Comment Crew, Wilhoit believes it is the same group of attackers based in Shanghai with links to the Chinese government that has purloined terabytes of corporate data from at least 141 companies since 2006.
