Business Espionage: Target - Global Energy Companies

A China-based man named Song Zhiyue has provided cheap U.S. computer servers for hackers who used everyday tools to infiltrate five multinational energy companies for as many as four years, according to a report issued by McAfee. Song, based in the Shandong Province's Heze City, in eastern China, is one of an undetermined number of other hacking specialists working normal business hours in Beijing to infiltrate the computer systems of energy companies in four countries -- the United States, Taiwan, Greece and Kazakhstan. McAfee did not identify the companies but said that Song's operation and that of the hackers has not been shut down.

Artist's conception.

The attacks are a sign of the increasing difficulty and high stakes involved in oil and gas exploration, and the extent to which some companies and countries are willing to go to get access to the fields. The purpose of the octopus-like hacking was a system that mined financial and exploration data on oil- and gas-fields that was critical to bidding for the fields, McAfee said. The attacks suggest that officials or companies in China were attempting to understand fields that were or going to be under bid; the financial and other plans of rivals that might bid on the same fields; and the equipment already at the fields or that might be used to explore or produce there. (more)

Tip: Computer hacking is supplemental to other espionage techniques, like electronic eavesdropping. Spies also want information before it gets put into the computer and the information which never gets put into a computer. Check your networks, but check your offices and phones first. ~Kevin