NO ONE TRUSTS PUTRAJAYA? Chinese hackers 'stole' classified data from Malaysian MH370 probe

Chinese hackers stole classified information from Malaysian officials involved in the search for MH370 a day after the plane disappeared, it was claimed today.

Government departments were sent e-mails containing a virus disguised as a hoax news report saying the Malaysian Airlines jet had been found.

When the attachment was opened, the virus - known as malware - began extracting sensitive data and sending it to a computer in China.

The attack came at a time when Malaysian officials in charge of the search were being heavily criticised - particularly by the Chinese - for not releasing crucial information.

'Targeted': Chinese hackers have been accused of stealing classified information from Malaysian officials involved in the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 a day after it disappeared on March 8

Were these men hacked? Malaysian Airlines chief Ahmad Jauhari Yahya (second l) and Department of Civil Aviation boss Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman (second r) address the media after MH370 disappeared

It was spotted by CyberSecurity Malaysia – a Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation agency - which blocked the transmissions and shut down the infected machines.

But by then around 30 computers in the Department of Civil Aviation, the National Security Council and Malaysia Airlines had been infected and an unknown amount of information stolen, a source said.

CyberSecurity Malaysia chief executive Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab told Nicholas Cheng from the Malaysia Star: 'We received reports from the administrators of the agencies telling us that their network was congested with e-mail going out of their servers.

'Those e-mails contained confidential data from the officials' computers, including the minutes of meetings and classified documents. Some of these were related to the MH370 investigation.

'This was well-crafted malware that anti-virus programs couldn't detect. It was a very sophisticated attack.'

Desperate for information: Malaysia Airlines commercial director Hugh Dunleavy (centre) speaks to journalists in China. The cyber attack came at a time when officials were criticised for their handling of the search

The breach was traced to an IP address - a unique number assigned to each computer on a network - in China, but no further details have been given.

Interpol are reportedly working with the agencies with the investigation.

Flight MH370 vanished inexplicably en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, and there has been no sign since of the aircraft or the 239 people onboard.

Reports of the hack come as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said A new underwater hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had a 'reasonable chance' of finding the plane.

It is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean far off the west coast of Australia, but a massive air and sea search failed to find any wreckage while an underwater probe gave no answers.

Experts have now used technical data to finalise the most likely resting place of the plane deep on the ocean seabed and are preparing for a more intense underwater search to find it.

'They are now going to search the entire probable impact zone which is, from memory, something like 60,000 square kilometres (23,000 square miles) of the ocean floor, off the coast of Western Australia,' Abbott told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

'If the plane is down there - and the best expert advice is that it did go into the water somewhere in this arc off the coast of Western Australia - if the plane is down there, there is a reasonable chance that we'll find it because we are using the best possible technology.' -Daily Mail