Operation Shady RAT: A frightening web of global cyber-espionage

A strangely named hacking campaign has targeted 72 corporations and governments in 14 countries. Can these cyber snoops be stopped? 

Operation Shady RAT
(Image credit: Jana Pape/CORBIS)

"When the history of 2011 is written, it may well be remembered as the Year of the Hack," writes Michael Joseph Gross in Vanity Fair, the first publication to break the news of Operation Shady RAT, an "unprecedented cyber-espionage campaign and intellectual-property bonanza." According to a new report from the cybersecurity firm McAfee, dozens of governments and private organizations were targeted by hackers in a vast campaign that spanned years and continents. Here's what you need to know:

What happened?

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