A former FBI cyber specialist has issued a warning to companies doing business in China, in the wake of reports that the Chinese government is suspected of being behind sophisticated malware installed on the network of a foreign, unnamed technology company.
NBC News reports that the malware gave the attackers complete access to the company's network, with the sophistication of the software suggesting that it came from a government source.
The technology company doing business in China was reportedly told by its Chinese bank that it had to install software in order to pay local taxes; the malware, dubbed "GoldenSpy," was embedded in the tax software.
The former FBI specialist, Brian Hussey, told NBC that, "If you do operations in China and if somebody asks you to install something, we're urging additional vigilance." He noted that the code had a "triple layer of persistence" that installed itself at various different locations on the network, each one kicking in in the event that another was deleted. The software beaconed to a remote server at random intervals in order to evade detection, and it was via this beaconing that it was eventually uncovered.