Chinese Computer Spy Ring Steals Files from 103 Countries

News of a Chinese based computer spy ring is not unexpected, these have been operating from the island of Hainan for several years, first making waves with the infamous Code Red virus that innocently took over Windows based computers, turned the screen red and displayed “Hacked by Chinese”.  This time, it’s more malicious…

A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of theDalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded.

In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved.

 

…only the New York Times could come to this conclusion.  Anyone who has been to China knows that nothing of this scale happens without the direct knowledge, direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP,null,null,null), who would have intentionally targeted the Dalai Lama…

 

Their sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York.

 

The researchers, who have a record of detecting computer espionage, said they believed that in addition to the spying on the Dalai Lama, the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

 

…there is quite a bit of detail in this article about the methods the researchers used to track this down, including gaining access to one of the hacker’s “dashboards”.