Vast Electronic Spying Operation Discovered

homesalad writes "Researchers in Toronto have discovered a huge international electronic spying operation that they are calling 'GhostNet.' So far it has infiltrated government and corporate offices in 103 countries, including the office of the Dalai Lama (who originally went to the researchers for help analyzing a suspected infiltration). The operation appears to be based in China, and the information gained has been used to interfere with the actions of the Dalai Lama and to thwart individuals seeking to help Tibetan exiles. The researchers found no evidence of infiltration of US government computers, although machines at the Indian embassy were compromised. Here is the researchers' summary; a full report, 'Tracking "GhostNet": Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network' will be issued this weekend." A separate academic group in the UK that helped with the research is issuing its own report, expected to be available on March 29. Here is the abstract. They seem to be putting more stress on the "social malware" nature of the attack and ways to mitigate such techniques.

Comments

holy schizophrenic xenophobia batman

[circletimessquare]

look! a chinese american! part of the "gossamer net" of unwitting spies!

and you got modded up?

well then we have now identified one potent weapon against the "gossamer net": the american flypaper of xenophobic retards

or maybe i'm being unfair, maybe you were modded up for your eloquent, flowery language

strangely reminescent of a qing dynasty poem!

hmmmm

the truth?

[circletimessquare]

so solly! please to be folgiving, i not know insclutable asian palt of mindless botnet!

"The bulk of Chinese intel is heavily distributed. The world's largest families don't need to rely on 007 agents; they can aggregate huge quantities of data by getting observant volunteers from the chinese diaspora to send bits of info back home through regular channels, like aunt Ping or even uncle James. It's so distributed it doesn't look like spying, and it isn't really, in the traditional sense."

please, educate little knee jerk foolish me. describe how this works exactly

this is what it sounds like right now: so we have chinese americans. and they are doing what exactly? they hear bits and pieces. a guy walks by them on the street and they overhear a bit of conversation? then the next chinese person, he sees parts of a file on a disk drive. and these peopple "unwittingly" do this through... family gatherings? what are they, robots? oh right, they ARE: "I think it's brilliant, even if wholly dependent on the chinese sense of family ties. A malware attack is a similar approach: it doesn't look like the work of spies, at first, and it's broadly distributed."

so chinese americans, you know, they go the laundromat or the chinese restaurant, as they all do, right? and there they consort and whisper all their gems of intel, and through "aunt ping", pass the info back to the mothership, i mean, er, the chinese communist party, since all asian people are obedient ant-like slaves to the old country, right? do i understand your genius grasp on the secret truth of the world i deny out of my liberal bleeding heart yet?

please! tell me where i am wrong in that description, i await my enlightenment

i don't have any antiarab paranoia

[circletimessquare]

although i can see how in a demented mind that can only view it through the lens of racism, that if i argue against religious extremism, whether christian, jewish, or muslim, that this makes me somehow anti-arab

you're a simple idiot. you can only see the world in simple stupid ways. you can only process my words according to your retarded proclivities