According to a recent report by security journalist Brian Krebs, hackers, believed to be based in China, stole intellectual property related to Israel's defense sector.
On Monday, Krebs revealed on his website that three firms – Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems – were the victims of a months-long intrusion, which resulted in “large amounts of data” being accessed, including information on missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ballistic rockets.
Columbia, Md.-based security firm Cyber Engineering Services shared the details of the breach with Krebs, telling the blogger that the hacks occurred between October 10, 2011 and August 13, 2012.
The attacks were believed to be the work of the Comment Crew, also known as APT1, an cyber espionage group which was said to have compromised 141 organizations in 20 major industrial sectors.
Update: In a Wednesday statement emailed to SCMagazine.com, IAI claimed that reports of the "leakage of sensitive information" were "incorrect," and that the reports actually referred to an "attempt to penetrate the company's civilian non-classified internet network which allegedly occurred several years ago."