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The Wild West of hacking: Symantec hunts down the 'Elderwood Gang'

The Wild West of hacking: Symantec hunts down the 'Elderwood Gang'

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While investigating a series of highly-coordinated zero-day attacks, Symantec has found the "Elderwood Gang," the group behind the Google hack of 2009.

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The hackers behind "Operation Aurora" — a highly coordinated cyber attack against 34 companies, including Google, in 2009 — may be the same group that has recently been infiltrating organizations with a series of zero-day exploits. Wired reports that researchers for Symantec have identified the group by similarities in code and tactics utilized in the attacks, dubbing the group the "Elderwood Gang" after the specific exploit the hackers used. In the last three years, the group managed to launch an unprecedented eight zero-day attacks, including three within a single month — Symantec notes that only eight zero-day exploits were discovered in all of last year. Check out the source for a detailed look at the sophistication of the attacks, the methods used, and the companies that have been targeted.