March 3 (Bloomberg) -- McAfee Inc., exploring the cyber attacks originating from China, discovered at least six incidents in which hackers broke into the computer systems that companies use to house valuable intellectual property.
“We know that these systems were absolutely targeted for the crown jewels of each organization -- potentially representing billions of dollars,” George Kurtz, McAfee’s chief technology officer, said today in an interview from Santa Clara, California. “We want to shed light on a problem that many didn’t realize.”
Many companies hold source codes, product formulas and other kinds of intellectual property in “software configuration management systems,” said McAfee, the second-largest maker of security software. Companies typically set up these systems to support collaboration and version control, and they assume network security will keep their internal systems safe.
Google Inc., the world’s most-popular search engine, said in January that it found evidence of “sophisticated” cyber attacks originating from China. Hackers went after at least 20 companies, Google said at the time.
Those attacks are being investigated by U.S. government agencies, local law enforcement and security experts such as McAfee and larger rival Symantec Corp. McAfee Chief Executive Officer Dave DeWalt said this week that his company was the first to notice the hacks.
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