Commercial software used in suspected state-backed hacking

San Francisco

A PREVIOUSLY undisclosed hacking campaign against military targets in Israel and Europe is probably backed by a country that misused security-testing software to cover its tracks and enhance its capability, researchers said.

The attack program relied on software usually sold by Boston-based Core Security to companies and other customers that want to test their own defences, said researchers coordinated by Israel's independent Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT.

The researchers from CrowdStrike and startup Cymmetria were slated to present their unusual findings at the annual Chaos Communication Congress security conference in Hamburg o…