The Canadian telecoms company Nortel Networks was continually hacked for a decade, according to reports.
Hackers enjoyed widespread access to the corporate computer network of Nortel Networks using seven passwords stolen from top Nortel executives, including the chief executive, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Hackers penetrated Nortel's computers since the year 2000 and stole technical papers, research and development reports, business plans, employee emails and other documents.
Brian Shields, a former employee who spent 19 years at the firm, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009, said the hackers hid spying software so deeply on employee computers that it took the company years to figure out the extent of the problem.
“They had access to everything. They had plenty of time. All they had to do was figure out what they wanted,” he said.
FireEye European technical lead James Todd said CISOs need to have visibilty into their networks.
“The length of this threat shows that no one was looking at it.”
