Google and Adobe Among Those Hit by Chinese Hackers

Boston (DbTechNo) – A loophole in Internet Explorer has been used by hackers to launch internet attacks against large US companies including Google.

The apparent loophole is present in Internet Explorer 6, IE 7, and IE 8 on Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP, Server 2003, Server 2008 R2, as well as IE 6 Service Pack 1 on Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.

The attacks are said to have originated in China, dealing with the modification of company web site source code.

According to Microsoft, “Internet Explorer was one of the vectors” used in the attacks that Google disclosed earlier this week, Microsoft said in a statement. “To date, Microsoft has not seen widespread customer impact, rather only targeted and limited attacks exploiting IE 6.”

Other companies to report foul play include Adobe, Yahoo and Symantec.

“As with most targeted attacks, the intruders gained access to an organization by sending a tailored attack to one or a few targeted individuals. We suspect these individuals were targeted because they likely had access to valuable intellectual property,” wrote McAfee CTO George Kurtz. “These attacks will look like they come from a trusted source, leading the target to fall for the trap and clicking a link or file. That’s when the exploitation takes place, using the vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.”

Microsoft are due to release their next security patch on February 9th.

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