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Operation Aurora Overview

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Cyber-attacks are common in the defense industry, but in January 2010, a sophisticated, advanced persistent threat hacked into the commercial sector forever changing the face of cyber security. Dubbed “Operation Aurora” by McAfee, the attack targeted specific high profile corporations to obtain valuable intellectual property. Google, Yahoo, Juniper Networks and Adobe Systems were also among the victims of this highly coordinated cyber heist. By manipulating computer codes the attackers were able to exploit the Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerabilities to gain access and obtain valuable sensitive information from over thirty high profile companies. Operation Aurora proves that the world is entering into a high-risk era where …show more content…

McAfee advised that its customers should first verify and update to the latest threat definition while performing a full scan of their systems. Second, double-check and inspect the network traffic history for any possible external systems related to the current or past attacks. Thirdly, always search and examine files or file attributes that have been associated with current or past attacks. To protect against IE vulnerabilities McAfee urges consumers to use McAfee Network Security Platform, McAfee Web Gateway and McAfee Firewall Enterprise (Evers and Bain).
Due to the sophistication of Operation Aurora, McAfee also advises consumers to take several countermeasures to ensure IP security is optimal in their systems.
• Users accounts should be limited and not granted excessive authorizations especially ability to access to administrative functions such as read and/or write source code and source code trees.
• To ensure system integrity, all logs must be set up and configured to record each and every event performed on the system. The systems should audit these logs frequently.
• Account users should submit to a two-factor authentication process. Inactive or retired log-on accounts should be deleted or removed.
• The system should be able to block attempts and protect its configuration files as well as logs through cryptographic hashing.
• It is ideal to maintain back up

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