'State-sponsored' Chinese hackers blamed for Coca Cola cyberattack

FBI officials quietly approached executives at Coca-Cola in March 2009 with some startling news.

Hackers had broken into the firm's computer systems and were pilfering sensitive files about its attempted US$2.4 billion acquisition of China Huiyuan Juice Group, according to three people familiar with the situation and an internal company document detailing the cyberintrusion.

The Huiyuan deal, which collapsed after the visit, would have been the largest foreign takeover of a Chinese firm at the time.

Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft-drink maker, has never publicly disclosed the loss of the Huiyuan information. It is just one in a global barrage of corporate computer attacks kept secret from shareholders, regulators, employees - and in some cases even from senior executives.

Like many other corporate cyberattacks, it appears that hackers in China were behind the Coca-Cola breach.

While the internal Coke report says the intruders were state-sponsored, its details, including the types of malware and techniques used, suggest they are part of Comment group, one of the most prolific hacking groups in China, according to AlienVault, a security firm.