1. New York Times Hacking Incident
Max Miller
3/11/2013

2. Background
● Times reporting on Chinese PM's family's
business dealings: 10/25/2012
● Corruption, billions of dollars
● Access to story immediately blocked in China

3. The Hack
● Tactics identified with Chinese military hackers
● Entered via computer networks at American
universities (used in the past)
● Stole employee passwords, gained entry to
personal computers
● Only seemed to be looking for information
related to reporting on the story

4. Growing Threat
● Expanding campaign against American media,
corporations, and government entities
● About image and stealing trade secrets
● Not only country: US, Israel, Russia, and Iran
are leaders in developing cyberwarfare

5. Dealing With the Attack
● FBI contacted, worked with AT&T to expel the
attackers
● Evident not working: Mandiant consultants
hired
● Allowed hackers to persist in system,
monitored for 4 months
● Closed all “back doors” once patterns were
detected

6. Guardian's Lessons
● Tiers to hackers:
– Amateurs: “Anonymous”
– Commercial: Hack to make money
– Government/Military

7. Guardian's Lessons
● Answers: No.
● More visible the hacker, less to worry about