Morgan Stanley network hacked

Operation Aurora attack appears to have been broader than originally thought

Financial services firm Morgan Stanley was hacked by cyber criminals based in China, according to leaked emails seen by Bloomberg.

The emails indicate that the attack comes from the group that also successfully hacked Google, Adobe Systems and Yahoo, amongst other companies.

The leaked emails are from security company HBGary, which was hired by Morgan Stanley last year to help prevent hacking attempts.

"They were hit hard by the real Aurora attacks (not the crap in the news)," wrote Phil Wallisch, senior security engineer at HBGary. He had read an internal Morgan Stanley report detailing the Operation Aurora attacks.

The Operation Aurora attacks were originally thought to be aimed at stealing intellectual property - specifically, source code repositories - and are considered by some to be linked to the Chinese state.

However, the appearance of other targets, such as Morgan Stanley, suggests that financial gain was also part of the attackers' agenda.

The name Aurora was coined by security firm McAfee, who found the word hidden within the malware code. It is likely that this was the name used by the malware developers for the attack.

Morgan Stanley has not disclosed what data was accessed or lost in the attack.