Boeing Supplier Partly Owned by China Is Defrauded

Austria’s FACC AG, which supplies parts to Boeing and Airbus, suffered $55 million in damages after a hack attack.  

The company's biggest investor is Aviation Industry Corp. of China.

A financial accounting department at the firm was the target, FACC disclosed on Jan. 20.

"The FACC case is intriguing because the company is ultimately controlled by China, often linked to intellectual property theft," Bloomberg reports.

Rick Gamache, a managing director at U.S. cyber-security firm Wapack Labs, said a competitor or another nation state could be responsible for the intrusion.

FACC says the breach did not impact its IT infrastructure, data security, or intellectual property rights, and its production and engineering units are operating normally.

According to Network World, "an attack against the company's accounting department could have involved a fraudulent wire transfer. Cybercriminals have proved adept at making fraudulent transactions by compromising email systems and login credentials, making it appear legitimate employees have initiated or approved large transfers."