It is being widely reported in the press that Chinese cyberspies have stolen designs of many leading edge U.S. weapons systems.

F-35

F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter

The Washington Post lists the stolen technology:

The designs included those for the advanced Patriot missile system, known as PAC-3; an Army system for shooting down ballistic missiles, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD; and the Navy’s Aegis ballistic-missile defense system.

Also identified in the report are vital combat aircraft and ships, including the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship, which is designed to patrol waters close to shore.

Also on the list is the most expensive weapons system ever built — the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is on track to cost about $1.4 trillion.

Press reports do not tell us how the Chinese were able to obtain these secrets.  We know from reports such as APT1 from Mandiant that the Chinese are experts at infiltrating systems using spearphishing emails. John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute has observed:

It’s not that the Chinese have some unbeatable way of breaking into a network. What is innovative is their targeting.

At Iconix, our goal is to make this threat vector less effective. Spearphishers deceive employees into making bad email decisions that compromise security. IT needs to help employees make better email processing decisions.

IT needs to help employees make better email processing decisions. That is where SP Guard comes into play. Using SP Guard, IT can determine a list of trusted senders and provide this information to staff in a simple and highly effective manner.

You can contact us at  408-727-6342,ext 3 or use our online form.