Key players in cyber-espionage world
Britain: Government
Communications HQ
United States: National
Security Agency
Malware programmes such as Warriorpride and Regin are used by Five Eyes — U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — to collect intelligence from email, video, voice and keystroke data
Islamic State: Uses Telegram messaging app which has
China: Hidden Lynx “hackers for hire” group specialises in
end-to-end encryption, channels and self-destruct feature. IS Nashir channel has 11,700 followers in four languages
attacks on financial and defence sectors.
Shanghai-based PLA Unit 61398 targets U.S. intellectual property, business emails, and contacts.
Putter Panda (Unit 61486) has mounted cyber attacks on Canadian, U.S. and EU aerospace companies. In July 2015
Deep Panda stole personal data of 21.5 million U.S. Federal employees
North Korea: Around 1,800 army hackers within Bureau 121
assembled to attack financial institutions and media companies in South Korea, Japan, and U.S. Believed to have mounted Sony Pictures hack in 2014
Russia: State-sponsored Energetic Bear targets U.S. and
Iran: Tarh Andishan -- consists of at least 20 hackers in Iran with
European critical infrastructure by sabotaging ICS (Industrial Control Systems). BlackEnergy malware toolkit captures screenshots, records audio, and harvests passwords and banking credentials from infected computers
associates in Canada, Netherlands and UK. Group targets critical infrastructure in Europe, North America and Middle East
Syria: Syrian Electronic Army targets media outlets and journalists.
In 2013 SEA hacked Associated Press Twitter account. Fake tweet that White House had been bombed resulted in markets falling by $136bn
Anonymous: Linked to hacks on governments in Canada, U.S. and Israel. Has declared war against IS after Paris attacks
Sources: Symantec,
Crowdstrike, F-Secure
© GRAPHIC NEWS
