Apple, Facebook, and Twitter are among 40 companies that were recently attacked by an eastern European hacker group, not a Chinese one, say two
Bloomberg sources. Many parties have linked the attacks to China, sometimes implicating the Chinese government, but the sources
say that investigations are pointing to a criminal gang based in eastern Europe or Russia. One server involved is allegedly hosted in the Ukraine.
The sources back up views the hacks passed through an iPhone developer website, but aren't as specific as
AllThingsD, which
pointed to iPhoneDevSDK. It's uncertain whether or not the site might still be infected with malware. In any case,
Bloomberg's sources indicate that investigations are currently being run by the FBI and the Secret Service.
The hackers are thought to be going after research and intellectual property that can be sold underground. Chinese hackers have been accused of going after the same information, but for the aid of the Chinese economy.