McAfee claims to have exposed 72 hit

McAfee, an IT security stiff, claims to have exposed one of the major sequence of cyber attacks ever to have taken place.

Using code name operation Shady RAT, after the remote access tool, McAfee lists 72 different organisations that, they say, have been hacked more than the last 5 years.

These firms include the International Olympic board, the UN and even security firms themselves.

In an interview with the BBC, McAfee's chief European technology officer, Raj Samani, said the attacks were still going on. He went on to say;

"This is a complete different level to the Night Dragon attacks that occurred previous this year. Those were attacks on a specific sector. This one is very, very broad. In some cases, we were allowable to delve a bit deeper and see what, if anything, had been taken, and in many suitcases we found evidence that intellectual property (IP) had been stolen."

McAfee refused to pinpoint who they think might be responsible, but there is speculation that China may be behind the attacks although Beijing has for all time denied any state taking part in cyber-attacks, calling such accusations "groundless".