Mitsubishi Heavy Industries confirm hacker attack
By Ashley Curtis
20/09/2011
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan's largest defence contractor, has admitted a breach in security; citing the work of malicious hackers,
However, there is good news - no confidential information has been stolen, which should put the firm at ease, reports Computer World.
"Scores" of servers and PCs had been infected with malware; including a number of Trojan horses, cites the Daily Yomiuri. A reported 45 servers had been infected as well as an additional 38 individual PCs, claims a US-based Mitsubishi spokesman.
Among the servers compromised were systems at Mitsubishi's Kobe shipyards (where the firm builds diesel-electric submarines), systems at Nagasaki shipyards and at its Nagoya plant, which designs missile-guidance systems.
The rise of hackivist collectives Anonymous and LulzSec has put hacking back on the criminal map, prompting businesses to spruce up their IT management systems to detect intrusions on a network.
A Japanese-language statement by the firm noted the infection was detected in mid-August and has been under investigation since then.
The US spokesman elaborated on the investigation, claiming no data had been stolen during the intrusion: "Mitsubishi IP addresses had been disclosed, but [the attack] was caught at an early stage".
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is not the only defence firm to be hit this year - Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft, was also attacked by hackers.
