‘SWEET SPOT’

Chinese Hackers Stole Undersea Military Secrets via Attacks on Universities: Report

Exploited academia’ openness to steal valuable military secrets from U.S., Canada, and Singapore.

Chinese hackers have targeted at least 27 universities in the U.S., Canada, and Southeast Asia to steal research about maritime technology being developed for military use. The University of Washington and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are among those targeted, according to a report by iDefense, a cybersecurity intelligence unit of Accenture Security. The majority of the colleges targeted either house research hubs focused on undersea technology or have faculty on staff with extensive experience in the field, the report says. U.S. universities have been frequent targets of such attacks as they are viewed as having weaker defenses than the American armed services and defense contractors. “Universities are pretty willing to share information in pursuit of academic information,” said Howard Marshall, of iDefense, “But as a lot of our adversaries have discovered that is a sweet spot for them to operate.”