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Researchers uncover explosive cyberspy network infecting more than 1,200 computers worldwide
Against the backdrop of humming computers in the underground lab in Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, a screen flickered, and the most politically explosive cyber-spy network in the world began to reveal itself," Omar El Akkad reports for The Globe and Mail.
"It was March 6, 12:33 p.m., and Nart Villeneuve was getting frustrated. The 34-year-old international relations student and part-time tech geek had tried everything to track down a piece of malicious software that had infected computers around the world, including those in the offices of the Dalai Lama," El Akkad reports.
"Finally, he turned to the ultimate hacker's tool: He entered some of the code from those infected computers into Google. Just like that, he found one of the cyberspy network's control servers, then another, and another. From that Eureka moment came a flood of information, almost all of it suggesting the ring originated in China," El Akkad reports.
"A team of Canadian researchers revealed this weekend a network, dubbed GhostNet, of more than 1,200 infected computers worldwide that includes such 'high-value targets' as Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Kuwait, as well as a dozen computers in Canada," El Akkad reports.
"The revelation left government bodies around the world scrambling to determine what sensitive files may have been compromised by the cyberspy network, which even now continues to spread and infect, its authors apparently undaunted by all the extra attention," El Akkad reports.
"The revelation that the vast majority of the attacks appear to originate from China has prompted an angry denial from Beijing, which slammed the report as nonsense," El Akkad reports. "But that hasn't stopped the bombshell investigation from attracting the attention of myriad intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Canada's Communications Security Establishment."
There's much more in the full article - recommended - here.
Against the backdrop of humming computers in the underground lab in Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, a screen flickered, and the most politically explosive cyber-spy network in the world began to reveal itself," Omar El Akkad reports for The Globe and Mail.
"It was March 6, 12:33 p.m., and Nart Villeneuve was getting frustrated. The 34-year-old international relations student and part-time tech geek had tried everything to track down a piece of malicious software that had infected computers around the world, including those in the offices of the Dalai Lama," El Akkad reports.
"Finally, he turned to the ultimate hacker's tool: He entered some of the code from those infected computers into Google. Just like that, he found one of the cyberspy network's control servers, then another, and another. From that Eureka moment came a flood of information, almost all of it suggesting the ring originated in China," El Akkad reports.
"A team of Canadian researchers revealed this weekend a network, dubbed GhostNet, of more than 1,200 infected computers worldwide that includes such 'high-value targets' as Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Kuwait, as well as a dozen computers in Canada," El Akkad reports.
"The revelation left government bodies around the world scrambling to determine what sensitive files may have been compromised by the cyberspy network, which even now continues to spread and infect, its authors apparently undaunted by all the extra attention," El Akkad reports.
"The revelation that the vast majority of the attacks appear to originate from China has prompted an angry denial from Beijing, which slammed the report as nonsense," El Akkad reports. "But that hasn't stopped the bombshell investigation from attracting the attention of myriad intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Canada's Communications Security Establishment."
There's much more in the full article - recommended - here.
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