Chinese hackers suspected of New York Times attack are back with more damaging malware

Last year, the New York Times fell victim to a four-month long hacking campaign apparently originating from China after publishing an investigative report on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s family finances in October.

Now the alleged attackers are back with a vengeance, according to the researchers at security firm FireEye in a blog post.

The attackers “appear to be mounting fresh assaults that leverage new and improved versions of malware” in a series of new campaigns spotted by the FireEye researchers when analyzing a recent attempted attack on an organization involved in shaping economic policy.

The researchers noted that the revised techniques, tactics, or procedures (TTPs) taken by these attackers have been a “sudden” change and warned that when larger and more successful hacking groups retool their TTPs, it can be a formidable threat.

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➤ FireEye blog post

Headline image via Thinkstock