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Canadians Uncover Chinese Cyber-Spies

by Terrence O'Brien on April 1, 2009 at 07:30 AM


Desperate to prove there's more to their country than socialized medicine and Mounties, a group of Canadians has uncovered a major international cyber-spy network originating in China. According to Canadian research group Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), the spy network has hacked over 1,000 PCs in over 100 countries, including those of foreign embassies and the offices of the Dalai Lama.

In the report, titled 'Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network,' the IWM suggests that the network of spies used malware to obtain access to and take control of computers in the foreign affairs offices and embassies of Iran, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, South Korea and Pakistan, among others.

The Dalai Lama seems to have been a major target; the IWM found evidence that substantial amounts of private and sensitive data relating to the Tibetan exile had been offloaded to China.

Even more worrisome, the malware installed is capable of using a computer's microphone and webcam to record activities in the room without alerting the user.

Hard evidence linking the group to the Chinese government has not been found, and Beijing denies any connection. In an interview with Reuters, Qin Gang, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, accused those suggesting China's involvement of spreading "rumors to vilify China" and resurrecting "the ghost of the Cold War."

That said, considering China's past record of industrial and cyber espionage, it doesn't take a leap of faith to think that the cyber-spy network is sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party. [From: BBC]

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Tags: china, dalai lama, DalaiLama, hack, malware, security, spies, spy

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