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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.
I would guess that the Russian crooks are doing it today with very targeted attacks. We just have not discovered it, or if discovered the financial institutions attacked have covered it up.
This doesn't sound like Echelon or Carnivore, but more like spyware being installed on computers.
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It is definitely not only China that employs some monitoring techniques on its citizens' Skype accounts. Last year during Myanmar's Saffron Revolution, my Burmese roommate organized information sessions and candle light vigils on our small, liberal arts school's campus, taking care to remain anonymous or using my name as a proxy for his actions. The only Burmese contact he had at the time was Skyping with his ex-girlfriend, a student at a nearby liberal arts school who organized protests of greater scope on her campus. After about 3 days he mysteriously received a call from his mother who sounded scared (remember, most non-satellite phone lines were all but taken down during the protests) assuring him that she was OK but he needed to stop everything he was planning on campus. My roommate had no choice but to stop his involvement in the protests.
Hi. This is reality calling, ding-dong. If you increase tariffs against China, you will (a) immediately increase the prices of all goods, (b) you will seriously increase your tax rates, because your government will no longer be able to fund its debt by selling its Treasuries to China (because China will have no more greenbacks coming in). You won't have a domestic industry to take up the slack, because you will have destroyed domestic demand. Seriously, buy a copy of the Wealth of Nations, for the love of God. Oh, not to mention the risk of provoking a war with China; and if you think that's going to be an easy fight, I have more bad news for you.
[FUCK BETA]
Macs? I'd think he'd be a Linux type of guy.
Mac, for sure. If someone knows the sound of one mouse button clicking, the DL is it!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
And keeping that work in China signals to all Americans that "you will not be able to earn a living doing mindless work".
Presently, a lot of Americans are laboring under the delusion that they should somehow get a house, car, TV, medicine, and internet in exchange for installing wingnuts all day on an assembly line.
High-sounding but irrelevant verbiage having no bearing on the facts. I mean, how grandiose you are in dismissing one simple fact: working our manufacturing economy was how Americans managed to have a standard of living envied by most of the world. How do you think wealth is created? By magic? Hardly: it's by building and selling things to other countries, it's called trade. The fact is, we've been doing a lousy job of that for the past thirty-odd years and that's why our standard of living is dropping and unemployment is increasing. Suppose we took your idea to its logical conclusion, and ended up with an entirely automated production system with no need for people at all. We'd all be unemployed at that point. No thanks. Fact is, there are millions upon millions of people that are perfectly happy installing wingnuts for a living, and there's not a goddamn thing wrong with that. Sure, in your idealized world we'd all live up to our "full potential" (whatever that is) but the reality is, most people are all they're ever going to be.
Open your eyes, and dispense with the notion, nay, the fiction, that a nation can be an industrial superpower without the industry. People with blinders on call that a "service economy" but it's really a synonym for "third world hellhole." Now, it may be that you're willing to live in some socioeconomic armpit (my girlfriend came from one: I could let her tell you what that means) but I'm not. Let me tell you, I've spent thirty years as an engineer working in our industrial sector, and we need it.
China may be willing to accept pollution (for now) but that doesn't mean that you must accept pollution in order to have an industrial base. We cleaned up our act and still managed to become a superpower. So can they, and eventually the cost of Chinese-made products will increase to reflect that. So the question is: will we still be around, or will we be just another third-world country ripe for the plucking?
You decide. But at this point in history, there's only one way to create wealth, and you don't do it by not working. Robots may be more efficient at manufacturing some products than human beings, but keep firmly in mind that civilization does not solely revolve around manufacturing trade goods efficiently. People have to figure in there somewhere. That's China's biggest problem right now: their people are little better than organic robots. In any event, if you look at efficiency as the only reason for industry, then you're no better than the typical American CEO slimeball that sold his own people down the river for a quick buck.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
How can you be sure your computer is 100% secure, and not infiltrated? Even in a fresh-installed, never-connected OS (any OS), how to be sure all executables on the CD don't have some hidden code in them, even when first released, that was somehow slipped in? What OS do they use in embassies, military, etc? What security measures, products, procedures?
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/