The attackers focused not only on governments, but on ASEAN itself, as well as corporations and journalists interested in China. Other targets included Indian or Southeast Asian-based companies in sectors such as construction, energy, transport, telecommunications and aviation.
Researchers at internet security company FireEye Inc said in a report released on Monday that the cyber attack was still ongoing and the servers the attackers used were still operational.Neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Internet regulator, immediately responded to written requests for comment on the FireEye
report on Monday. The hackers group appeared to include at least two software developers and remained undetected for so long as it was able to re-use methods and malware dating back to 2005.
FireEye report said the cyber espionage operations dated back to 2005 and focused on targets - government and commercial - who hold key political, economic and military information about the region. Bryce Boland, Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific at FireEye and co-author of the report, said China has always denied accusations that it uses the Internet to spy on governments, organisations and companies.