En forskargrupp vid University of Toronto, med 34-årige Nart Villeneuve som superhacker, har kartlagt spionageaktiviteter som styrs från Kina. De har funnit 1295 st smittade värddatorer i 103 länder, varav nästan 30% av datorerna har anknytning till mycket viktiga verksamheter.
Angriparen har i flera fall kunnat fjärrstyra den angripna datorn – inklusive kringutrustning såsom webcams och mikrofoner samt få tillgång till hela filsystemet.
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Läs mer här:
Forskaren Nart Villeneuves sajt
Artikel i New York Times
Hela rapporten:
Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network
The capabilities of GhostNet are far-reaching. The report reveals that Tibetan computer systems were compromised giving attackers access to potentially sensitive information, including documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama. The report presents evidence showing that numerous computer systems were compromised in ways that circumstantially point to China as the culprit. But the report is careful not to draw conclusions about the exact motivation or the identity of the attacker(s), or how to accurately characterize this network of infections as a whole. The report argues that attribution can be obscured.
The report concludes that who is in control of GhostNet is less important than the opportunity for generating strategic intelligence that it represents. The report underscores the growing capabilities of computer network exploitation, the ease by which cyberspace can be used as a vector for new do-it-yourself form of signals intelligence. It ends with warning to policy makers that information security requires serious attention.