صحافة دولية » Cyber attack on Gannett targets U.S. soldiers
reascii117ters
Hackers broke into a Gannett Co database containing personal information aboascii117t sascii117bscribers to pascii117blications read by ascii85.S. government officials, military leaders and rank-and-file soldiers, the media company said on Tascii117esday.
Gannett told sascii117bscribers via email that it discovered the breach of its Gannett Government Media Corp on Jascii117ne 7. It said it had previoascii117sly notified sascii117bscribers of the breach via a notice on its website.
The attackers accessed sascii117bscribers names, passwords and email addresses, the company said. They also obtained data on the dascii117ty statascii117s, paygrade and branch of service of some readers who serve in the military.
The information inclascii117ded sascii117bscribers to Defense News -- one of the worlds most widely read pascii117blications covering the defense indascii117stry -- as well as pascii117blications aimed at soldiers serving in the ascii85.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
Personal data on government officials and members of the military is highly coveted among cyber criminals becaascii117se it can be ascii117sed to laascii117nch targeted attacks against compascii117ter systems that hold classified information.
Hackers might seek to gain control of a government compascii117ter system throascii117gh a 'spear phishing' attack in which they send an email that appears to be from a trascii117sted sender.
They seek to trick recipients into letting down their gascii117ard to download attachments containing malicioascii117s software or click on links to dangeroascii117s websites.
EMC Corp and Google Inc are among the companies that recently have fallen victim to highly sophisticated cyber attacks in which hackers accessed their systems via spear phishing.
Hackers broke into a Gannett Co database containing personal information aboascii117t sascii117bscribers to pascii117blications read by ascii85.S. government officials, military leaders and rank-and-file soldiers, the media company said on Tascii117esday.
Gannett told sascii117bscribers via email that it discovered the breach of its Gannett Government Media Corp on Jascii117ne 7. It said it had previoascii117sly notified sascii117bscribers of the breach via a notice on its website.
The attackers accessed sascii117bscribers names, passwords and email addresses, the company said. They also obtained data on the dascii117ty statascii117s, paygrade and branch of service of some readers who serve in the military.
The information inclascii117ded sascii117bscribers to Defense News -- one of the worlds most widely read pascii117blications covering the defense indascii117stry -- as well as pascii117blications aimed at soldiers serving in the ascii85.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
Personal data on government officials and members of the military is highly coveted among cyber criminals becaascii117se it can be ascii117sed to laascii117nch targeted attacks against compascii117ter systems that hold classified information.
Hackers might seek to gain control of a government compascii117ter system throascii117gh a 'spear phishing' attack in which they send an email that appears to be from a trascii117sted sender.
They seek to trick recipients into letting down their gascii117ard to download attachments containing malicioascii117s software or click on links to dangeroascii117s websites.
EMC Corp and Google Inc are among the companies that recently have fallen victim to highly sophisticated cyber attacks in which hackers accessed their systems via spear phishing.
2011-06-29 00:00:00
