According to researchers in Canada, there is a door to a subterranean “otherworld” on the Internet where Chinese hackers stealth fully roam at whim and indulge in high-stakes espionage.
The complex “ecosystem” has been targeting the Indian government, researchers at the Shadow Server Foundation, have accused.
Through an elaborate clandestine network of social networking hubs, and free web hosting sites, the perpetrators have allegedly gleaned highly-classified documents and other data from the Indian Government, the United Nations, and the even the personal papers of the exiled Dalai Lama.
The criminals are thriving, noted Ron Deiber (Director of the U of T Munk School of Global Affairs).
In the recent past, Citizen Lab (a member of Information Warfare Monitor) - uncovered an espionage network by the name of GhostNet - run by a nefarious band of hackers targeting the Tibetan Government.
The complex “ecosystem” has been targeting the Indian government, researchers at the Shadow Server Foundation, have accused.
Through an elaborate clandestine network of social networking hubs, and free web hosting sites, the perpetrators have allegedly gleaned highly-classified documents and other data from the Indian Government, the United Nations, and the even the personal papers of the exiled Dalai Lama.
The criminals are thriving, noted Ron Deiber (Director of the U of T Munk School of Global Affairs).
In the recent past, Citizen Lab (a member of Information Warfare Monitor) - uncovered an espionage network by the name of GhostNet - run by a nefarious band of hackers targeting the Tibetan Government.
The network hacking the Indian government was given the name Shadow.
The hackers make use of a network of computers comprised by malware - software designed to take over, monitor, and harm computers without the owner’s (user’s) knowledge.
I reported on a malicious intruder by the name of the - Soldier Virus - which is currently infecting computers around North American which uses the malware software aforementioned.
Post: 03/31/10
In the near future, I shall be publishing a post with instructions on how to eradicate the nasty intruder on home computers and laptops.
Researchers have been alarmed to learn that simple networks like the one I encountered with the Soldier virus (using malware software) are fast-becoming complex systems moving from simple criminal exploitations to political, military, and illegal acts motivated by a hunger for highly-sensitive intelligence data.
“We see criminal networks increasingly compromising sensitive targets and stealing sensitive information, in addition to typical things that they’re interested in, like credit card numbers and bank account numbers,” added Dieber.
Although the researchers were able to track the hackers to Chinese soil, they were unable to link the intrusions directly to the Chinese Government.
The hackers rely on the victim acting on information (bait) in order to infect their computer with the malware.
For this reason, enticing e-mails (at-the-ready to infect), are used to prey on human nature.
“They will use either compelling newsworthy themes or in some cases , they’ll use very specific information from a previous ‘attack‘, “noted Nart Villeneuve, a chief security official at the SecDevGroup.
Villeneuve cautioned that PC users should keep their eye out for attachments containing pdf’s, word documents, PowerPoints, and Zip files.
The infected files will compromise the user’s computer bringing it under the attacker’s control.
As was the case, when my own laptop became infected with the “Soldier virus“.
“Then they will be able to send documents from the user’s computer to other locations.
Researchers are scheduling a Global Security Summit at the University of Toronto in the fall in a bold-faced effort to policymakers together from the world community so they may share resources in hopes of building sound practices in a realm currently lacking normal procedures or pervasive policing.
Researchers have been alarmed to learn that simple networks like the one I encountered with the Soldier virus (using malware software) are fast-becoming complex systems moving from simple criminal exploitations to political, military, and illegal acts motivated by a hunger for highly-sensitive intelligence data.
“We see criminal networks increasingly compromising sensitive targets and stealing sensitive information, in addition to typical things that they’re interested in, like credit card numbers and bank account numbers,” added Dieber.
Although the researchers were able to track the hackers to Chinese soil, they were unable to link the intrusions directly to the Chinese Government.
The hackers rely on the victim acting on information (bait) in order to infect their computer with the malware.
For this reason, enticing e-mails (at-the-ready to infect), are used to prey on human nature.
“They will use either compelling newsworthy themes or in some cases , they’ll use very specific information from a previous ‘attack‘, “noted Nart Villeneuve, a chief security official at the SecDevGroup.
Villeneuve cautioned that PC users should keep their eye out for attachments containing pdf’s, word documents, PowerPoints, and Zip files.
The infected files will compromise the user’s computer bringing it under the attacker’s control.
As was the case, when my own laptop became infected with the “Soldier virus“.
“Then they will be able to send documents from the user’s computer to other locations.
Researchers are scheduling a Global Security Summit at the University of Toronto in the fall in a bold-faced effort to policymakers together from the world community so they may share resources in hopes of building sound practices in a realm currently lacking normal procedures or pervasive policing.
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