How the Chinese took, and lost, control at TechNet

While keen to point out that Microsoft's TechNet portal security was "in no way compromised" by the tactic, researchers with security outfit FireEye discovered that a well established China-based hacking campaign called Deputy Dog had managed to create profiles and posts on TechNet that contained embedded Command and Control codes for use with a BlackCoffee malware variant. This method of hiding in plain sight is nothing new, but it can make detection problematical as the data (especially within a technical forum such as TechNet) is simply 'lost' in a sea of similar code from genuine users of a well respected and therefore assumed to be safe site.