A Canadian telecom company doesn’t have a thing called security?  Well, I guess that’s why they finally went bellyup.

The hackers, using seven passwords stolen from top executives, including the company’s CEO, downloaded technical papers, research and development reports, employee emails and other documents, the Journal said.

It cited Brian Shields, a former 19-year veteran of the firm who led an internal investigation, as saying: “They had access to everything… They had plenty of time. All they had to do was figure out what they wanted.”

Shields said the hackers also hid spying software so deeply on employee computers that it took the company years to figure out the extent of the problem.

Just imagine what they are doing right now?  This must have been a walk in the park for the Chinese.

The revelations highlight the threat posed by Chinese hackers, whom US intelligence said were the world’s “most active and persistent perpetrators” of economic espionage in a report submitted to the US Congress last November.

via Nortel was penetrated by hackers for decade: report.