Chinese hackers poke the Bayer, but German giant says it withstood attack

German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer says it has been hit by malware, possibly from China, but that none of its intellectual property has been accessed.

On Thursday the aspirin-flingers issued a statement confirming a report from Reuters that the Winnti malware, a spyware tool associated with Chinese hacking groups, had been detected on some of its machines.

The malware was spotted on Bayer PCs in early 2018, with the company silently monitoring its behavior for more than a year before finally pulling the plug on the operation last month and notifying authorities.

"Our Cyber Defense Center detected indications of Winnti infections at the beginning of 2018 and initiated comprehensive analyses," a Bayer spokesbod said in a statement to The Register.

"There is no evidence of data outflow. Our experts at the Cyber Defense Center have identified, analyzed and cleaned up the affected systems, working in close collaboration with the German Cyber Security Organization (DCSO) and the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia. Investigations of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Cologne are ongoing."

The Winnti malware, which allows hackers a backdoor into the infected machine, has long been used by China-based hacking groups looking to lift trade secrets and other vital corporate information from foreign companies.

Researchers have spotted the rogue code as far back as 2009 when Winnti was spotted ripping off digital certificates and source code from games developers.

The attack comes as researchers have warned of increases in hacking activities from Chinese groups looking to grab intellectual property on behalf of the government and local companies.

That Bayer would be targeted by hackers for its IP is hardly surprising. The German corporation, whose market cap is valued at more than $16bn thanks to the recent acquisition of agriculture kingpin Monsanto, is one of the world's largest drugmakers and its network is host to highly valuable information on those products.

source theregister

Industry: Cyber Security News