MUMBA $\"\"$ I: Two Indian conglomerates were forced to pay $5 million each in order to prevent hackers<\/a> from disclosing information that could have implicated them in wrongdoing.
\n
\nThe payoff was made in May, but people aware of the matter said the hackers would have obtained access to the IT systems of the companies two to three years before that, reflecting a widespread vulnerability that criminals are looking to exploit when the time is right.
\n
This is said to be the first known case of cyber<\/a> criminals extorting money from large Indian companies. ET has pieced together the story by speaking to executives, private investigators and officials. The break-ins and threats weren’t reported to the authorities for fear that the information thus provided could have proven incriminating — hence the involvement of private detectives.
\n
The threat is said to have emanated from the Middle East<\/a> although it’s not clear whether it goes back even further. The companies were told to pay up or face the consequences of the data being passed on to the Indian government<\/a>, one person said.
\n
\nThe blackmail demands came a few months after a scam involving thefts of documents from the petroleum and other minstries erupted earlier this year. “They waited for the opportune moment. The hackers kept reading and even downloading each and every correspondence between the employees and others for years,” the person added.
\n
\nThe data are said to have included correspondence with middlemen and paperwork on sensitive financial transactions. While the companies didn’t approach police or government investigators, senior officials currently involved in cyber security programme of the government have been tracking the development.
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\n“In one case, the email system of a company got compromised, while in the other case, the hackers were able to get remote access inside the company’s IT system to gain sensitive information,” said an official. Cyber experts said both attacks were made through botnets.
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\nBotnets are infected computers that can be controlled by a hacker. “In one of the cases, the hacker could actually even see when a senior executive would move a mouse on his computer,” said one person.
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\nIndian companies, including the two cited above, recently provided a list of hacker groups that had attacked them in the past six months. According to the official cited above, these included njRAT, XtreameRAT, h-w0rm, anonghost, SEA and Opsavegaza.
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\nThree of them — anonghost, SEA and Opsavegaza — have been traced as far back as the Middle East. Some experts suspect they could have some connection to the Indian underworld. Domestic intelligence agencies don’t back the theory.
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\nIn similar incidents, two big Indian banks were hacked recently by cyber criminals. ET couldn’t confirm whether any payment was made to them. One senior bank official said no money had been paid.\n\n<\/p><\/body>","next_sibling":[{"msid":49062763,"title":"China\u2019s Lead Eastern group to buy 10% in Reliance's Zapak Mobile Games for $15 million","entity_type":"ARTICLE","link":"\/news\/chinas-lead-eastern-group-to-buy-10-in-reliances-zapak-mobile-games-for-15-million\/49062763","category_name":null,"category_name_seo":false}],"related_content":[],"msid":49068927,"entity_type":"ARTICLE","title":"Middle East hackers extort $10 million from two Indian companies to hide information from government","synopsis":"The companies were told to pay up or face the consequences of the data being passed on to the Indian government, one person said.","titleseo":"middle-east-hackers-extort-10-million-from-two-indian-companies-to-hide-information-from-government","status":"ACTIVE","authors":[{"author_name":"Sachin Dave","author_link":"\/author\/479239123\/sachin-dave","author_image":"https:\/\/etimg.etb2bimg.com\/authorthumb\/479239123.cms?width=100&height=100&hostid=268","author_additional":{"thumbsize":true,"msid":479239123,"author_name":"Sachin Dave","author_seo_name":"sachin-dave","designation":"Senior Editor","agency":false}}],"Alttitle":{"minfo":""},"artag":"ET Bureau","artdate":"2015-09-23 08:13:39","lastupd":"2015-09-23 08:15:11","breadcrumbTags":["Internet","Hackers","cyber","Government","Middle East"],"secinfo":{"seolocation":"middle-east-hackers-extort-10-million-from-two-indian-companies-to-hide-information-from-government"}}" data-authors="[" sachin dave"]" data-category-name="" data-category_id="" data-date="2015-09-23" data-index="article_1">

从两家印度公司中东黑客勒索1000万美元从政府隐藏信息

公司被告知要付清,否则将面临的后果的数据被传递给印度政府,一个人说。

萨钦戴夫,
等局

更新2015年9月23日15点坚持

在孟买我:两个印度企业集团被迫支付500万美元以防止黑客从披露的信息可能涉及不法行为。

回报是今年5月,但是人们意识到此事说,黑客将获得进入公司的IT系统两到三年,反映普遍的弱点,罪犯正在开发的时候是正确的。

这是第一个已知的情况下网络罪犯从大型印度公司勒索钱财。等故事拼凑了高管,私家侦探和官员。入侵和威胁不向当局举报,因为担心提供的信息从而可以证明有罪的证据,因此私家侦探的参与。

据说源自何处的威胁中东虽然目前还不清楚是否可以追溯到更远。公司被告知要付清,否则将面临的后果的数据传递给印度政府,一个人说。

勒索要求几个月前一个骗局涉及盗窃的文件从石油和其他minstries今年早些时候爆发。“他们在等待时机。黑客甚至保持阅读和下载每个员工和其他人之间的通信多年来,”这个人说。

据说包括数据通信与中间商和文书工作在敏感的金融交易。虽然公司没有方法警察或政府调查人员,高级官员目前参与网络安全项目的政府一直在跟踪发展。

”在一个案例中,一个公司的电子邮件系统有损害,而在其他情况下,黑客能够远程访问公司内部的IT系统来获得敏感信息,”一位官员说。网络专家说,两起事件都通过僵尸网络。

僵尸网络是被感染的计算机,可以由一个黑客控制。”的情况下,黑客甚至可以看到当一个高级主管将一只老鼠在他的电脑,”一名人士表示。

印度公司,包括上面两个引用,最近还提供了一个列表的黑客组织攻击他们在过去的六个月。根据上面的官方引用,这些包括njRAT XtreameRAT, h-w0rm anonghost、海洋和Opsavegaza。

三个人——anonghost、海洋和Opsavegaza——已经追踪早在中东。一些专家怀疑他们可能有一些连接到印度的黑社会。国内情报机构不支持理论。

在类似事件中,两大印度的银行被网络罪犯最近入侵。等无法确认是否付款了。银行的一位高级官员表示,没有钱支付。