Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Computers Hacked by China - Report

The computer systems of 5 foreign ministries, including that of Bulgaria, have been subjected to Chinese hacker attacks.

The cyber-attacks, which began in 2010, have hit the systems of the Latvian, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, and Bulgarian foreign ministries, revealed The New York Times, based on a report of FireEye, a California-based computer security company.

The FireEye report does not link the attacks to a specific group in China, but security experts say the list of victims points to a state-affiliated campaign.

"Unlike other groups, which tend to attack commercial targets, this campaign specifically targeted ministries of foreign affairs," said Nart Villeneuve, the researcher who helped lead FireEye's efforts.

The attackers sent their targets emails with a link that claimed to contain naked photos of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of former President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.

Once clicked, attackers were able to gain a foothold into their targets' computer networks, though investigators said they were unable to see which files the attackers had taken.

Chinese Foreign Ministry officials have denied links to the attack, admitting that even their computers have fallen prey to similar hacks.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry has still not commented on these reports.

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