A Year's Further Research On an Espionage Network 61
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.'"
Re: (Score:1, Redundant)
What scumbags? The article directly says theres no links to any government, Chinese or other.
But I think there might be more to it. If it were Chinese super hackers, either working alone or the government, wouldn't you think it would be kind of stupid to leave all the traces pointing to China? After all we are on the Internet and it wouldn't be too hard to locate your servers elsewhere in the world. That makes me suspect Chinese have nothing to do with it, but its either some other nation using Chinese as a
Re: (Score:1)
It's the Chinese. They left traces pointing to China so you would suspect that it was someone else.
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It's the Chinese. They left traces pointing to China so you would suspect that it was someone else.
Yeah because that will definitely work outside movies too.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
>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 stra
two words (Score:4, Insightful)
Ooooh! The Dalai Lama! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Or whoever is behind the attack is going after the Dalai Lama to implicate the Chinese Government.
Re:Ooooh! The Dalai Lama! (Score:4, Insightful)
Or the Chinese government is going after the Dalai Lama in a crudely obsessive way to make you think it's someone going after the Dalai Lama to implicate the Chinese government.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Or someone is going after Dalai Lama in a crudely obsessive way to make you think it's Chinese doing it in a crudely obsessive way so you would think it's the Chinese who are trying to hide it by doing it in a crudely obsessive way.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or someone is going after Dalai Lama in a crudely obsessive way to make you think it's Chinese doing it in a crudely obsessive way so you would think it's the Chinese who are trying to hide it by doing it in a crudely obsessive way.
You have a truly dizzying intellect.
Re: (Score:2)
... to think they want you to think that is what they want you think.
Re: (Score:2)
. . . the theft of a nation . . .
. . . is the easy bit.
Fencing a nation is a bitch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fence_(criminal) [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Fencing a nation is a bitch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fence_(criminal) [wikipedia.org]
It certainly is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fencing [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
And yet the article says nothing about the intention being to start a war between China and India. Making things up is indeed fun. As for the CIA supporting the Dalai Lama... heck, in this case I'm all for it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
And it states:
The money allocated for the resistance movement was spent on training volunteers and paying for guerrilla operations against the Chinese, the Tibetan government-in-exile said in a statement.
Just like with Osama bin Laden, Iraq and Middle-East. USA has a long history of supporting guerrilla and when it doesn't fit them anymore, they call them terrorists. I would imagine Dalai Lama and Tibet will be the next such thing.
Tibet is part of China (Score:3, Informative)
and always has been, and don't try to tell the Chinese differently.
Re:Tibet is part of China (Score:4, Insightful)
As Americans, we should show our condemnation for China's illegal occupation of Tibet by returning California, Texas, and New Mexico to Mexico, and Hawaii to its indigenous people. I think we should keep the rest, which we either bought from the French or stole fair and square.
Re: (Score:2)
s/Chinese/British
s/Dalai Lama/Mahatma Ghandi/
s/Tibet/India/
Now do you see why the Chinese are worried?
BTW, there's one fewer 'h' in Monty Python than you think. Or one more 'l', depending on which joke you're trying to make.
Research 2.0 (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Major discovery (Score:3, Funny)
Let me refer all of you to this... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/business/global/02hacker.html?emc=eta1 [nytimes.com]
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Then tell me again how the Chinese intelligence services aren't funding and running Ghostnet.
Now now, let's not be hasty, there's no evidence in this report of the involvement of the People's Republic of China. It could be anyone on the long list of organizations who happen to hate the Dalai Lama, Chinese dissidents, etc. ;)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
That is one thing about the Chinese government, they don't tend to be subtle.
Not necessarily [wikipedia.org] Perhaps you're transposing the awkward and unsubtle dialect of Chinglish [wikipedia.org] to other aspects of Chinese culture.
and there is never a case of US involvement? (Score:2, Interesting)
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 Diploma
Re:and there is never a case of US involvement? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's plausible, but it's a works-once kind of thing. As soon as you make any major use of it, it's going to be found out, and everyone else is going to go looking for it. So you have to save it for when it's really valuable, but doing that means you risk it being found anyway and never using it.
It['s
What happened to colons two through four?
Re: (Score:1)
to find TBL instructions and reporting home inside search engine requests was considered as fairly difficult.
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And you end up with a fifth colon...
:-)
:-P
:-0
:-D
>:-( <-----The Fifth Colon. Fear his anger.
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The Fifth Colon was a great movie.
Re: (Score:2)
And you end up with a fifth colon paid by the very IT user.
Is that sort of like tearing someone a new one, only four times worse?
I think (Score:1)
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.
Not connected to the government (Score:2)
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 wou
Re: (Score:2)
The Chinese may be rationalizing their distance in a way that may not make sense to us, it only has to make sense to them to do it.
Isn't it ironic? (Score:2, Troll)
Troll? (Score:2)
Why not China? (Score:2)
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