Many law firms and public relations companies are now in danger of being hacked by hackers. FBI warns that hackers are using a sophisticated email scheme to intrude into these companies network system and steal their highly confidential data that are often linked to large corporate clients.

FBI had issued warning to these companies/firms for these alarming increase of "hacking activities", which has begun as far as 2 years back and remain drastically increasing from time to time.

Many of these intrusions are made through "spear phishing", which means these attacks comes from personalized/customized spam e-mails that are hard to detect and seems harmless due to it subject lines appear to be appropriate to the person's business and appear to come from a trusted source.

Alan Paller, director of research at SANS Institute, a computer-security organization, said that a major law firm in New York was hacked into in early 2008 in an attack that originated in China. However,it is difficult to tell whether hackers were working on behalf of the country's government, located in that country, or simply routing computer traffic through that country. In some cases, computer network attacks can be linked to independent cyber crime groups.

Paller also told that hackers are aiming law firms and target those companies that have major international deal negotiation such as seeking a patent on highly classified new technology.

Hackers often look for documents that lay out the company's playbook for the deal, or its negotiating positions and tactics.

While opening a "spear phishing" e-mail itself does not pose a danger, they often contain Web links or attachments that when clicked on or opened will infiltrate the network or install malicious programs.

Once the hacker is in the network, they often plant a computer program that searches for, collects and copies files and sends them to a computer server, usually in another country. The program also may create a back door that will allow hackers to get back in later.

The FBI warned that the attachments or links can appear to be anything from a photo to an executable program.



(source: http://www.time.com/time/business/article, 1.bp.blogspot.com/.../s400/kaos_hacker03.jpg)

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