TECH

Spies use LinkedIn to hack defense companies

Hackers posed as recruiters for US military products companies Collins Aerospace and General Dynamics on LinkedIn to break into networks of military service providers in Europe, cybersecurity researchers said on Wednesday.
The hackers were able to compromise the systems of at least two defense and aerospace companies in Central Europe last year, targeting employees with false job offers from US companies, said Slovak-based digital security company Eset.
The hackers used LinkedIn's private messaging feature to send virus-contaminated documents that employees at target companies were tricked into opening, said Jean-Ian Boutin, Eset's head of threat research. Eset declined to identify the victims and said it was not clear whether any information was stolen. General Dynamics and Collins Aerospace did not respond.
Eset was unable to determine the identity of the hackers, but said the attacks left some links to a North Korean group known as Lazarus, accused by United States prosecutors of orchestrating a series of high-profile thefts by companies and institutions that include Sony and the Central Bank of Bangladesh.
North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The attacks are not the first time that LinkedIn has been used as an international espionage tool. Western officials have accused China of using fake social media accounts to recruit spies in other countries.
Eset's Boutin said that hacker attempts are often made by email. "This is the first case that I know where LinkedIn was used to deliver the malware itself," he said.
LinkedIn said it identified and deleted the accounts used in the attacks. "We are actively looking for signs of government-sponsored activity on the platform and quickly take action," said company security chief Paul Rockwell.

Reuters