British government hit by e-mail attack

The next big thing: Targeted attacks
Word of the potential digital espionage in Britain comes on the heels of a widespread corporate espionage case revealed in Israel late last month. Executives in Israel's top telecommunications companies have been arrested in connection with several cases of espionage there, linked to a Trojan horse program.

The two incidents appear to be unrelated, according to the British warning. But the news speaks to an increase in targeted attacks, which some experts say are a rising threat to Internet users.

"We've seen a tremendous increase in specific attacks," said Howard Schmidt, former White House cybersecurity advisor.  "The whole hacker thing used to be about saying 'I am the biggest kid now the block.’ Now it is shifting, it's about greed and corporate gain."

Schmidt also said it was unlikely that the virus writers have limited their attack to UK institutions, suggesting U.S. firms and agencies might also be at risk.

"I don't think they are being targeted in isolation," he said. "The British government is being proactive in putting this information out there, telling anybody who lives there or works there or does business there to be aware."

It was not clear if the British government issued the warning principally as a stern reminder to urge safer computer habits, or because there had been significant successful attacks against government computers. A spokesman at the National Infrastructure Security Coordination Center couldn't say how many computers were attacked, or provide additional details. An anonymous spokesman told the Associated Press that the agency is "not aware of any loss of information."

On the other hand, the spokesman quoted by the Associated Press added,  "We can't be certain of that, that's part of the reason we are broadening our sphere of advice. We recognize we need some feedback to see how big this is."

Richard Wang, who manages antivirus research at Sophos Labs in the U.S., says the presence of a specific hit list of Trojan horses to watch for in the warning indicates some of the attacks have probably been successful.

"It is a little unusual that they would come out and issue a list," he said, suggesting the Trojan horse programs were probably found on infected computers.  "That underlines the point that this is not just a document saying, 'Here are some useful things to do.' "

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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