Researchers: Cyber spies break into govt computers
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By CHARMAINE NORONHA
Sunday, March 29, 2009 1:45 AM CDT
TORONTO - A cyber spy network based mainly in China hacked into classified
documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries,
including the computers of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles, Canadian
researchers said Saturday.
The work of the Information Warfare Monitor initially focused on allegations
of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan community in exile, and
eventually led to a much wider network of compromised machines, the
Internet-based research group said.
"We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan
computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of
the Dalai Lama," investigator Greg Walton said.
The research group said that while it's analysis points to China as the main
source of the network, it has not conclusively been able to detect the
identity or motivation of the hackers.
Calls to China's Foreign Ministry and Industry and Information Ministry rang
unanswered Sunday. The Chinese Embassy in Toronto did not immediately return
calls for comment Saturday.
Students For a Free Tibet activist Bhutila Karpoche said her
organization's computers have been hacked into numerous times over the past
four or five years, and particularly in the past year. She said she often
gets e-mails that contain viruses that crash the group's computers.
The IWM is composed of researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group
and the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. The
group's initial findings led to a 10-month investigation summarized in the
report to be released online Sunday.
The researchers detected a cyber espionage network involving over 1,295
compromised computers from the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran,
Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan.
They also discovered hacked systems in the embassies of India, South Korea,
Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and
Pakistan.
Once the hackers infiltrated the systems, they gained control using malware
_ software they install on the compromised computers _ and sent and received
data from them, the researchers said.
Two researchers at Cambridge University in Britain who worked on the part of
the investigation related to the Tibetans are also releasing their own
report Sunday.
In an online abstract for "The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance
of the Tibetan Movement," Shishir Nagaraja and Ross Anderson write that
while malware attacks are not new, these attacks should be noted for their
ability to collect "actionable intelligence for use by the police and
security services of a repressive state, with potentially fatal consequences
for those exposed."
They say prevention against such attacks will be difficult since traditional
defense against social malware in government agencies involves expensive and
intrusive measures that range from mandatory access controls to tedious
operational security procedures.
The Dalai Lama fled over the Himalaya mountains into exile 50 years ago when
China quashed an uprising in Tibet, placing it under its direct rule for the
first time. The spiritual leader and the Tibetan government in exile are
based in Dharmsala, India.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
--
Warm Regard
*M S ALI* Deira,Dubai
Online at:
*[email protected]
*
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