Symantec believes it has joined the dots that connect a single Chinese hacking group dubbed ‘Hidden Lynx’ to a series of high-profile APT-driven cyberattacks on US interests, including the infamous Aurora hacks of 2009 as well as this year’s compromise of security firm Bit9.
The firm’s white paper on the group describes a large team of between 50 and 100 professionals working on a professional hacker-for-hire basis. This would make the group even more significant than the APT1/Comment Crew hacking group that has become the media face of Chinese state-sponsored hacking.
According to Symantec, since 2009 Hidden Lynx has targeted hundreds of organisations around the world, focussing more than half its effort on the US, with smaller campaigns against targets in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and even mainland China itself.
This is a group that seems to do a bit of everything, picking off organisations in every sector with a particular interest in corporate espionage against finance, government, ICT, education and healthcare.
“This broad range of targeted information would indicate that the attackers are part of a professional organization,” said Symantec in its white paper.
“They are methodical in their approach and they display a skillset far in advance of some other attack groups also operating in that region, such as the Comment Crew.”Relate
A second prominent campaign was what became known as the VOHO watering hole attacks publicised by RSA in 2012 before mentioning its "affiliation" to the