Chinese hackers hit Chamber of Commerce

One of the country's largest lobbying groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was hit by a cyber attack in May 2010 from a group of Chinese hackers who gained access to the information of its 3 million members.

While the attack was quickly and quietly shut down, officials said that there were signs that the email history of at least four employees, who were primarily focused on Asia, was stolen, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Some officials have said that the hacking group may have ties to the Chinese government, a point that Chinese officials have strongly denied, the paper reports.

"What was unusual about it was that this was clearly somebody very sophisticated, who knew exactly who we are and who targeted specific people and used sophisticated tools to try to gather intelligence," said the Chamber's chief operating officer David Chavern, according to the source.

It's still unclear how much information was left insecure. However, some suspicious activity, such as a printer printing in Chinese characters, has continued.

For more information on data breaches and information security, please consult the blog of Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for Identity Theft 911.