European aeronautical parts supplier website hacked

The Web site of a European aeronautical parts supplier had been hacked and a malicious attack — which exploits zero-day Microsoft security vulnerability — was planted, said IT security company Sophos.

According to a press release, Sophos did not name the company involved because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Mr Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, said: “One way that hackers break into large companies and organisations is to target their supply chain. It’s reasonable to speculate that whoever was behind this attack actually had bigger fish to fry.”

Users running any flavour of currently-supported Windows are vulnerable from XP up to Windows 7. All supported editions of Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007 are also vulnerable.