Slashdot Mirror
A Year's Further Research On an Espionage Network
Mortimer.CA writes "Last year researchers discovered a giant electronic spying operation they dubbed GhostNet. Now, after a further year's worth of research, Infowar Monitor has released a new report. The report (Scribbed PDF) documents a complex ecosystem of cyber espionage that systematically targeted and compromised computer systems in India, the Offices of the Dalai Lama, the United Nations, and several other countries. While the servers are in China, the report's authors say that there is 'no evidence in this report of the involvement of the People's Republic of China or any other government in the shadow network.' Furthermore, the 'intruders even stole documents related to the travel of NATO forces in Afghanistan, illustrating that even though the Indian government was the primary target of the attacks, one gap in computer security can leave many nations exposed.'"
Plausible. Deniability.
I continue to get a kick out of the Chinese government's fixation on the Dalai Lama. If the whole thing didn't involve the theft of a nation and the brutal repression of the Tibetan people, the situation would be hilarious in a Monthy Python sort of way.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
The team describes its findings in a report called Shadows in the Cloud: An investigation into Cyber Espionage 2.0
Even "researchers" have caught the marketing bug. "Cloud" "Cyber" "2.0"
Full report here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29435784/SHADOWS-IN-THE-CLOUD-Investigating-Cyber-Espionage-2-0
We also discovered a gigantic copyright infringement network, which is codenamed "scribd."
The best bit of journalism in the last year on this subject:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/business/global/02hacker.html?emc=eta1
Now - read the story of Maija the not-so-l33t hacker and pay special attention to how the story explains how the Chinese special intelligence services work. The whole thing is outsourced, loose affiliation. The blackwater-ization of hacking, where for the government is most interested in a plausible denial.
Then tell me again how the Chinese intelligence services aren't funding and running Ghostnet.
The way I see it, these hackers probably get treated as well as Bobby Kotick treats his people. Do thy bidding and get hookers sent over for lunch, maybe two if you find a 0-day.
so build into all US produced ( or at least with US label ) network devices a small Trojan Boot Loader hidden with dirty programming.
and activate these TBL's with instructions hidden in serachengine answers- according to the serial No of who bought which.
And you end up with a fifth colon paid by the very IT user.
( A French Diplomat made a slip of tounge when asked if they did not fear Argentine to use Exocet missiles against themselves: we can switch it off - analogue a US Diplomat may slipof tongue: we can switch it ON )
and always has been, and don't try to tell the Chinese differently.
Best Slashdot Co
I think you just discovered a big botnet. Countless machines are being used a camouflage to blur out the real man behind the operations.
Probably, it's just a free game with an open door. Anyone who figured out this botnet's protocol would be able to use it for free.
It's the Chinese. They left traces pointing to China so you would suspect that it was someone else.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
>That makes me suspect Chinese have nothing to do with it, but its either some other nation using Chinese as a gateway and making them get the heat, or it's someone trying to make Chinese image bad.
I wouldn't say chinese aren't involved instead I think the articles confirms what's widely known in the hacking world but seems to be distorted in press everytime a hacking ring is traced to china.
These hackers whomever they are is motivated by profit. Instead of stealing bank information they're stealing strategic information (missile placements, defense protocol, etc.) and then selling it for profit to whomever wants it, be it the chinese government or maybe india's archrival pakistan or corporations with businesses in india.
There's a tendency to see china as some kind of monolithic entity, meaning if a chinese person did something then "China" must of done it, but peel away the generalizations and as the article states there's different groups with different goals at work.
Does anyone really believe that the Chinese (or any other government) would be stupid enough to do this from their own servers? One of the key tenents of espianoge is to cover your tracks. The closest something like this will ever get to the Chinese government is if the CIA or some other intelligence service happens to catch someone handing off a USB drive filled with whatever digital loot was acquired from the botnet. The government itself does not need to directly sponsor this sort of activity. It would be political suicide to do so. It is much too easy to obfuscate the process by farming it out.
Of course every country out there spies, but most don't try to take over innocent civilians computers in a bid to do so.
It is mentioned on Slashdot not because of the action, but the method.
Well if the US or Russia does take over civilians computers, they are at least better at hiding it than the Chinese.
That is one thing about the Chinese government, they don't tend to be subtle.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
I find it quite ironic that they publish their report as a PDF, one of the biggest sources of vulnerabilities known to man. Why not something a bit more open and standard, like HTML?
That is one thing about the Chinese government, they don't tend to be subtle.
Not necessarily Perhaps you're transposing the awkward and unsubtle dialect of Chinglish to other aspects of Chinese culture.
Why couldn't this be China. Perhaps they don't have the resources of the US or Europe to find more discrete methods of espionage. Perhaps they just don't care who knows. Clearly it doesn't matter all that much if the evidence points to them because so many people are reluctant to accuse China anyway.
I'd say the ones doing the work are probably sloppy. Skilled, but not thorough enough to cover their tracks. And the higher ups are probably feeling rather cocky and couldn't care less since on the international stage they seem to be getting their way anyway.
How was that a troll? PDFs suck, we all hate having to deal with them.... yet they offer no other way to view the report.