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Operation Shady Rat is a massive cyberspying attack that was revealed by McAfee in a report in early August 2011. Although the attack was not designed to steal financial information, it still presents the risk of intelligence breaches within certain government agencies and private companies. It appears that the attacks were perpetrated to gain access to intellectual property.
Techopedia Explains Operation Shady Rat
Operation Shady Rat may be one of the largest data confiscations ever. Although the McAfee report that describes the cybersyping operation did not name many specific companies or organizations, Operation Shady Rat stole data through spear-phishing attacks, which permitted the operation to move through computers unnoticed.
McAfee did divulge the types of companies and organizations that were affected, including government networks in the U.S., South Korea, India and Taiwan. Other companies within Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Denmark, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam were also targeted.
McAfee also did not report the exact scope of the 74-company infiltration, but it is believed to be vast.
