HOUSTON -- Houston energy companies have been targeted by hackers who are attempting to take down the U.S. economy, the FBI said.
The FBI, Ray Mislock -- a security leader for Dupont and a former CIA security expert who worked directly under George Tenet, and other security investigators recently spoke candidly with Houston's energy leaders about the problem.
Mislock said America is literally at war fighting off economic attacks that come by the thousands daily via the Internet.
Most of the time, the FBI says, energy companies in Houston don't even know they've been compromised.
“It is a little scary because the victim organizations span everything from small law firms up to huge multi-national corporations, and it’s not just a government problem anymore,” said Michael Graven, who works for Mandiant, a computer forensics firm that is often hired by the United States government to seek out and eliminate economic espionage.
At the symposium, investigators told energy leaders that most of the hackers are believed to be coming from inside Russia and China. And while most of the attacks come during business hours on the other side of the globe, some are coming from within on the inside.
Hong Meng is an example of that. He is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to stealing secrets from Dupont, his employer.
Mislock wouldn't comment on camera about Meng, but sources from the symposium said that when a search warrant was issued for Meng's Ohio home, his 60-year-old mother was found burning documents in the fireplace, and his wife was trying to destroy classified material in the couple’s bedroom.
Meng's sentencing was scheduled to be held last week but has been postponed.
