SE Asia Based Hackers Stole ThyssenKrupp Trade Secrets

German based steel maker ThyssenKrupp AG’s technical trade secrets are likely to have been stolen by South East Asia based hackers in cyber attacks earlier this year.

The world’s largest steel maker ThyssenKrupp said that the breaches are likely to have caused by attackers located in Southeast Asia.

"ThyssenKrupp has become the target of a massive cyber attack," the German company said in a statement.

The hackers have stolen project data from ThyssenKrupp's plant engineering division and from other areas in attacks that were discovered in April and traced back to February, Reuters reported Thursday.

The company was not able to find out the documents that are being stolen, nor was it possible to estimate the scale of the intellectual property losses.

A criminal complaint was filed with police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

However, secured systems operating steel blast furnaces and power plants in Duisburg, in Germany's industrial heartland in the Ruhr Valley, were unaffected, the company said.

No breaches have been found at other businesses ranging from elevators to its marine systems unit, which produces military submarines and warships.

ThyssenKrupp is a major supplier of steel to Germany's automotive sector and other manufacturers. The attack was uncovered by ThyssenKrupp's in house computer emergency response team. State and federal cyber security and data protection authorities were informed.

The management board has been informed about the attacks at an early stage.