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BERLIN (Reuters) – German drug maker Bayer said on Thursday it was reinventing a cyberattack meant to carry Chinese fingerprints, pointing to the risk of data theft and disruption that big companies face.
Bayer said Thursday it detected malware on its computer networks early last year.
Instead of removing the malware, the company chose to monitor the software closely to determine its purpose and who was responsible for its installation.
Bayer said in a statement: "There is no evidence of data theft", although a spokesman added that the overall damage is still being assessed and that the German prosecutors opened an investigation.
"This type of attack concerns Wicked Panda in China, according to security experts," said the spokesman, citing DCSO, a cybersecurity group created by Bayer in 2015 with German partners Volkswagen, Allianz and BASF.
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Third party personal data was not compromised and malware was removed at the end of March, the spokesman said.
Andreas Rohr of DCSO said that hackers were using a malicious program called Winnti, which allows access to a remote system, and then continue the exploits from there. Once installed, any action can be done in one way or another.
"Winnti's discovery provides clear evidence of the existence of sophisticated and sophisticated malware used in a targeted and sustainable espionage campaign," he said.
Bayer, the largest drug manufacturer in Germany and the largest agri-food processing company in the world, said after regaining control of Monsanto that he could not say exactly when his system would be in danger.
The computer systems of the German technology group ThyssenKrupp were exposed in 2016 to a cyberattack via the Winnti software.
Rohr said he was aware of at least five cyberattacks based on the Winnti software in Germany, claiming that the group was very active and that its hackers were capable of launching multiple international attacks in parallel.
Manufacturing groups around the world are expanding their data networks with increasingly advanced sensors, processing chips, and analytical tools.
The German cybersecurity agency said in February that Germany had experienced a significant increase in the number of security incidents affecting vital infrastructure such as power grids.
Although the attacker can not be categorically determined, since the malicious software used is widely available, Rohr said these methods were typical of Chinese hackers.
He added that the malware came from a group of Chinese hackers who are attacking and targeting online campaigns for money.
The objectives of the group were to steal the intellectual property of the affected companies or to use the access for espionage purposes.
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