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business partners, and undermine the security
safeguards put in place.
The Aurora attacks appear to have been carried
out to provide the attacker with source code and
other information that may allow them to develop
zero day exploits and rootkits 5 for use on their
targets. The certificates generated in the Root
Authority attack would likely be of use for future
state
driven attacks (despite a lone Iranian
individual claiming full responsibility for the attack,
and stating that there was no government
involvement (Kobie, 2011)). The attack against RSA
appears to have been conducted to gather sensitive
information
facilitate
attacks
against
organisations that use RSA security tokens for two
factor authentication; including US defence
contractors who work on classified projects.
Based on the trend toward the targeting of
enabling companies and the increasing popularity of
virtualisation, VMware Inc. and other virtualisation
companies seem likely to be among companies
targeted by APTs in the future. If unknown
vulnerabilities in VMware software were discovered
it could have far reaching ramifications, affecting the
security of other companies. Especially given the
increased popularity of cloud computing which often
uses virtualisation to separate data belonging to
different customers. It could also make it easier for
malicious software to escape from virtualised
analysis platforms and infect connected systems.
Even though details of APT attacks are scarce in
the media, the released information is quite
informative. Firstly, it tells us that humans are often
the weakest link in the security chain and that users
need to be better educated on the threat from social
engineering. Socially engineered email campaigns
5 Rootkits
consist of software designed to hide an attacker
presence on a computer system. They can change the way
malicious programs are seen by the operating system, making it
blind to the presence of the malicious programs.
PAGE 6 OF 13
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TARGET
TARGETING METHODS
SOCIAL
ENGINEERING?
ZERO DAYS?
DATA STOLEN?
CONFIRMED BY TARGET?
OAK RIDGE NATIONAL
LABORATORY
Socially engineered emails
Yes (2011)
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL
LABORATORIES
Socially engineered emails
GHOSTNET
(VARIOUS TARGETS)
Socially engineered emails
(primarily)
Some targets
US DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE
Infected USB drive
STUXNET
Infected USB drive
Network shares
SQL databases
NIGHT DRAGON
(VARIOUS TARGETS)
Socially engineered emails
(primarily)
GOOGLE
Socially engineered emails
OPERATION AURORA
(VARIOUS TARGETS)
Socially engineered emails
THE FRENCH FINANCE
MINISTRY
Socially engineered emails
CANADIAN
GOVERNMENT
Socially engineered emails
(multiple)
Some targets
Some targets
Some targets
AUSTRALIAN
GOVERNMENT
COMODO AFFILIATE
ROOT AUTHORITY
Socially engineered emails
LOCKHEED MARTIN
VPN?