Fwd: Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.
Bipin Gautam
Awareness bhaya..... :)
Brief:
> Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.
>
> The report has now been covered in an exclusive story by the New
> York Times' John Markoff. Download the New York Times story here
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html
>
> Researchers at the Information Warfare Monitor uncovered a suspected
> cyber espionage network of over 1,295 infected hosts in 103
> countries. This finding comes at the close of a 10-month
> investigation of alleged Chinese cyber spying against Tibetan
> institutions that consisted of fieldwork, technical scouting, and
> laboratory analysis.
>
> Close to 30% of the infected hosts are considered high-value and
> include computers located at ministries of foreign affairs,
> embassies, international organizations, news media, and NGOs. The
> investigation was able to conclude that Tibetan computer systems
> were compromised by multiple infections that gave attackers
> unprecedented access to potentially sensitive information,
> including documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama.
>
> Who is ultimately in control of the GhostNet system? While our
> analysis reveals that numerous politically sensitive and high value
> computer systems were compromised in ways that circumstantially
> point to China as the culprit, we do not know the exact motivation
> or the identity of the attacker(s), or how to accurately
> characterize this network of infections as a whole. One of the
> characteristics of cyber-attacks of the sort we document here is the
> ease by which attribution can be obscured.
>
> Regardless of who or what is ultimately in control of GhostNet, it
> is the capabilities of exploitation, and the strategic intelligence
> that can be harvested from it, which matters most. Indeed, although
> the Achilles’ heel of the GhostNet system allowed us to monitor and
> document its far-reaching network of infiltration, we can safely
> hypothesize that it is neither the first nor the only one of its kind.
>
> As Information Warfare Monitor principal investigators Ron Deibert
> and Rafal Rohozinski say in the foreword to the report, “This report
> serves as a wake-up call. At the very least, a large percentage of
> high-value targets compromised by this network demonstrate the
> relative ease with which a technically unsophisticated approach can
> quickly be harnessed to create a very effective spynet…These are
> major disruptive capabilities that the professional information
> security community, as well as policymakers, need to come to terms
> with rapidly.”
>
> Download the full report on 29 March 2009 at
> http://www.infowar-monitor.net/ghostnet/
>
>
> Ronald J. Deibert
> Director, The Citizen Lab
> Munk Centre for International Studies
> University of Toronto
> r.de...@utoronto.ca
> http://deibert.citizenlab.org/
>
Black Knight
The dark visitor has some more detailed trackdown report. Moreover, its
all so jumbled up.
Something struck my mind......'if ghostnet exists for real and if the
guy 'lost33' is of ghostnet, how can anyone be so lame keeping their
regular used email information out on the internet :D lolz....one can't
be that loose on keeping oneself anonymous'.....any guy with a brain
would keep their identity sealed and appear as some other if indulged
with such underground cyber spy agencies....a different name, a
different identity, even profiles and pictures of some other individual
be used if needed for any purpose...:) '
Regards,
Black Knight
Bipin Gautam
>
> http://www.thedarkvisitor.com/2009/04/hunting-the-ghostnet-hacker/
>
> The dark visitor has some more detailed trackdown report. Moreover, its
> all so jumbled up.
>
> would keep their identity sealed and appear as some other if indulged
> with such underground cyber spy agencies....a different name, a
> different identity, even profiles and pictures of some other individual
> be used if needed for any purpose...:) '
>
hehe... not "any" guy dude, online anonymity is a different mastery
and a BIG learning curve from hacking and espionage. The attacker was
itself a sitting duck for owning the control server for so long.
Someone with resources and brains can give the attacker a really good
chase regardless of the precautions taken.
thanks,
-bipin
Black Knight
track-down report is putting upfront....."i belong to some notorious
cyber spy gang and the way i am tracked down.....its so not matching to
the whole scene...."
yes one with good A-Z can give a good chase, but a high profile bank
robbers caught on tape on a dept. store loot.....might be what everyone
would call a coincidence but....think again...the two identities don't
fit quiet right...
Regards,
Black Knight