US

A memo that triggered a U.S. investigation into a possible cyber-attack by Indian military intelligence is probably a fake, but it is clear from leaked documents that serious security breaches did take place.

A little-known hacker group, 'Lords of Dharmaraja', began posting the documents last year, but only drew widespread attention after the anti-virus software firm Symantec confirmed on Saturday that a segment of its source code had been accessed by the group.

A leading data security assessment company says that New Zealand businesses are becoming "soft targets" for malicious hackers because they are lagging significantly behind the US and UK in achieving compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) introduced by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC).

Speaking at a news briefing today, China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said claims that China was behind the hacks, which occurred in 2007 and 2008, are "untrue". The spokesperson added, according to Reuters, which attended the briefing, that China is "also a victim of hacking attacks and will oppose any form of cybercrime, including hacking".