75,000 Computer Systems Hacked

A chilling discovery from the Virginia-based web security firm NetWitness: more than 75,000 computer systems at almost 2,500 companies, primarily in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and Mexico, were hacked beginning in 2008 in one of the world's largest and most sophisticated cyber attacks. The hackers, based out of Eastern Europe, baited employees into downloading or opening emails containing malware, which targeted proprietary corporate data, credit-card transaction data, emails, and login credentials at companies and at least 10 government agencies in 196 countries. Most troubling is that the attacks exhibited a scale and sophistication usually reserved for cyber attacks by nation states, highlighting the inability of the private sector to defend itself with traditional security approaches such as intrusion-detection systems and anti-virus software.