ISLAMABAD – US company has accused China of stealing technical data for theso-called Iron Dome missile system from Israeli computers.
Maryland-based Cyber Engineering Services (CyberESI) has detected the cybertheft, according to cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs.
“Between Oct. 10, 2011 and Aug. 13, 2012, attackers thought to be operatingout of China hacked into the corporate networks of three top Israelidefense technology companies, including Elisra Group, Israel AerospaceIndustries, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems,” Krebs writes.
“By tapping into the secret communications infrastructure set up by thehackers, CyberESI determined that the attackers exfiltrated large amountsof data from the three companies,” he adds.
“Most of the information was intellectual property pertaining to Arrow IIImissiles, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, ballistic rockets and other technicaldocuments in the same fields of study.”
The Iron Dome has been co-developed by American company Raytheon andIsraeli firm Rafael. It is partly manufactured in the United States.
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It is claimed to be capable of detecting, assessing and intercepting avariety of shorter-range targets such as rockets, artillery and mortars.
The system was originally developed to counter small rockets that Hamas andother Palestinian resistance groups fired into Israeli occupied territoriesin retaliation for the regime’s crimes against Palestinians. However, ithas proven largely ineffective in serving that purpose.
CyberESI believes the hackers were from a hacking group sponsored by theChinese military. However, what Beijing will do with the Iron Domeinformation is an open question.
