Chinese hackers targeted the USS Ronald Reagan, according to cybersecurity firm FireEye, Financial Times reported Friday. “The China-based group created an infected document impersonating an official message addressed to officials visiting the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier which conducted patrols of the South China Sea in July. The suspect document is dated July 11, the day before a tribunal in The Hague ruled against China’s expansive claims in the region. The targets of the attack were delegates from a foreign government due to visit the aircraft carrier that day. The document contained Enfal malware, which can be used to copy information from an infected computer or download further computer viruses.”
Possible intent: “The likely goal of the ‘spear-phishing’ attack — a attack in the form of an email that appears to be from someone known to the recipient — was to gather information on military maneuvers and command and control systems, as well as policy issues,” FireEye said.