China-based network caught in cyber-espionage (AFP)
AFP/File – A man uses a computer. A shadowy cyber-espionage network based mostly in China has infiltrated secret … OTTAWA (AFP) – A shadowy cyber-espionage network based mostly in China has infiltrated secret government and private computers around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers said Sunday.
The network, known as GhostNet, infected 1,295 computers in 103 countries and penetrated systems containing sensitive information in top political, economic and media offices, the researchers found in a report.
Many of the compromised computers were found in the embassies of Asian countries, such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and Taiwan.
The embassies of Cyprus, Germany, Malta, Portugal and Romania as well as the foreign ministries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran and Latvia were also targeted.
"Up to 30 percent of the infected hosts are considered high-value targets and include computers located at ministries of foreign affairs, embassies, international organizations, news media and NGOs," the report said.
The report, by the group Information Warfare Monitor, was commissioned by the Dalai Lama's office alarmed by possible breaches of security.
The 10-month investigation by specialists based at the University of Toronto found the spying was being done from computers based almost exclusively in China.
But researchers said while its findings were disturbing there was no conclusive evidence the Chinese government was involved, highlighting that China now had the world's highest number of Internet users.
"We do not know the motivation or the identity of the attackers or how to accurately characterize this network of infections as a whole," the report said.
"Attributing all Chinese malware to deliberate or intelligence gathering operations by the Chinese state is wrong and misleading," the report said.
"The sheer number of young digital natives online can more than account for the increase in Chinese malware."
The investigation between June 2008 and March 2009 focused on the Tibetan community, thanks to the unparalleled access the team was given to Tibetan missions in Dharamsala as well as in London, Brussels and New York.
"The Tibetan computer systems we manually investigated ... were conclusively compromised by multiple infections that gave attackers unprecedented access to potentially sensitive information," the report said.
Their work led them to a broader operation that had infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in less than two years.
By installing malware on the computers, the hackers were able to get the infected systems to send them top-secret information.
"From the evidence at hand, it is not clear whether the attacker(s) really knew what they had penetrated, or if the information was ever exploited for commercial or intelligence value," the report said.
"This report serves as a wake up call," the authors pointed out. "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."
The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected, the New York Times said.
GhostNet continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers warned.
However, they found no evidence that US government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated.
source by: Yahoo!News
The network, known as GhostNet, infected 1,295 computers in 103 countries and penetrated systems containing sensitive information in top political, economic and media offices, the researchers found in a report.
Many of the compromised computers were found in the embassies of Asian countries, such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and Taiwan.
The embassies of Cyprus, Germany, Malta, Portugal and Romania as well as the foreign ministries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran and Latvia were also targeted.
"Up to 30 percent of the infected hosts are considered high-value targets and include computers located at ministries of foreign affairs, embassies, international organizations, news media and NGOs," the report said.
The report, by the group Information Warfare Monitor, was commissioned by the Dalai Lama's office alarmed by possible breaches of security.
The 10-month investigation by specialists based at the University of Toronto found the spying was being done from computers based almost exclusively in China.
But researchers said while its findings were disturbing there was no conclusive evidence the Chinese government was involved, highlighting that China now had the world's highest number of Internet users.
"We do not know the motivation or the identity of the attackers or how to accurately characterize this network of infections as a whole," the report said.
"Attributing all Chinese malware to deliberate or intelligence gathering operations by the Chinese state is wrong and misleading," the report said.
"The sheer number of young digital natives online can more than account for the increase in Chinese malware."
The investigation between June 2008 and March 2009 focused on the Tibetan community, thanks to the unparalleled access the team was given to Tibetan missions in Dharamsala as well as in London, Brussels and New York.
"The Tibetan computer systems we manually investigated ... were conclusively compromised by multiple infections that gave attackers unprecedented access to potentially sensitive information," the report said.
Their work led them to a broader operation that had infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in less than two years.
By installing malware on the computers, the hackers were able to get the infected systems to send them top-secret information.
"From the evidence at hand, it is not clear whether the attacker(s) really knew what they had penetrated, or if the information was ever exploited for commercial or intelligence value," the report said.
"This report serves as a wake up call," the authors pointed out. "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."
The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected, the New York Times said.
GhostNet continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers warned.
However, they found no evidence that US government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated.
source by: Yahoo!News
Israel: Militants smuggled tons of weapons to Gaza
AP – A Palestinian girl, holds balloons as she walks next to a painted wall in the West Bank city of Ramallah, … The assessment by the chief of Israel's internal security service, Yuval Diskin, reinforced a growing feeling among Israelis that the government ended the war too soon.
Diskin told the Cabinet that since the three-week military operation ended Jan. 18, Gaza militants have smuggled into the territory 22 tons of explosives, 45 tons of raw materials for producing bombs, dozens of rockets, hundreds of mortar shells and dozens of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
The weapons are coming in through Gaza's porous border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, despite improved Egyptian interdiction, Diskin said. His remarks were reported by meeting participants who spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.
There was no way to verify his assessment. Using sophisticated technology and human informants, Israel has kept close tabs on Gaza since it withdrew its forces from the area in 2005.
Israel launched its air and ground assault in late December in an effort to stop rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from Hamas-ruled Gaza and stanch the stream of arms reaching the territory through underground tunnels from Egypt. More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, including 926 civilians, the Palestinians say. Thirteen Israelis also died.
The attacks from Gaza have dropped off considerably but have not stopped: The military reported Sunday that a total of 185 rockets and mortars were fired since the military campaign ended. But the threat of escalation remains, as the reports of continued smuggling suggested.
"It is testimony that next time, we should go to something more complete in order to prevent the rearmament of Hamas," said Yuval Steinitz, a close associate of incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"In the long term, Israel cannot agree to the establishment of an Iranian military base 50 or 60 kilometers from Tel Aviv," said Steinitz, a lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud party. "Sooner or later, we shall have to put an end to it," he added, without elaborating.
Israel accuses Iran of funding and arming Hamas.
Netanyahu, who is expected to take office on Tuesday, has said the Gaza offensive did not go far enough and Hamas should be toppled. However, he stopped short of saying he would attack Gaza again to bring that about.
During its Gaza offensive, Israeli warplanes destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels, though many were quickly repaired. Egyptian-brokered negotiations on a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel centered in part on instituting measures to stop the smuggling.
Last week, however, Israel came under suspicion of having dramatically escalated its attempts to cut off the flow of arms to Gaza militants with the emergence of reports that aircraft attacked weapons convoys in Sudan last month. Israeli officials have not commented publicly about the reports.
However, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has hinted that Israel did launch the strikes, saying the Israeli military would hit "terror infrastructure" wherever it may be.
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Iraqi troops round up Sunni fighters in Baghdad
AP – U.S. troops take position on a major street after a gunfight sparked Saturday at the dominantly Sunni … BAGHDAD – U.S.-backed Iraqi forces swept through a central Baghdad slum Sunday, disarming government-allied Sunni fighters who launched a two-day uprising to protest the arrest of their leader.
An official of the local Awakening Council in the Fadhil area said Iraqi forces had taken control of the neighborhood along with U.S. soldiers and were arresting fighters. He said resistance had ceased "for the sake of people of Fadhil."
The confrontation in Fadhil, a ramshackle Sunni enclave on the east bank of the Tigris River where al-Qaida once held sway, is potentially explosive if it leads to a split between the Shiite-led government and the Awakening Councils.
The councils, also known as Sons of Iraq, are Sunni security volunteers who broke with al-Qaida and joined forces with the Americans to help guard their neighborhoods against extremists.
Shiite political leaders have never fully trusted the Awakening Councils since many of them are ex-insurgents. There have been fears that some of the fighters may return to the insurgency if they feel threatened by the Shiite-led government.
That could undermine U.S. efforts to stabilize Baghdad before American troops pull out of Iraqi cities by the end of June.
Trouble started Saturday when Iraqi troops arrested the head of Fadhil's Awakening Council for alleged terrorist activity and for purportedly leading an armed group loyal to Saddam Hussein's ousted party.
The arrest triggered fierce gunfights between Iraqi forces and Awakening Council members, killing four people and wounding 15.
Six more people, including four women, were wounded Sunday in sporadic shooting that occurred as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers began sealing off the neighborhood, police and hospital officials said.
After Sunday's gunbattles, Iraqi soldiers using loudspeakers ordered Awakening Council members in Fadhil to give up their weapons, while convoys of Iraqi and U.S. troops rolled in to secure the area, witnesses said.
Witnesses saw Iraqi troops, some accompanied by American soldiers, leading away groups of young men.
Awakening Council members, reached by telephone, said they would release five Iraqi soldiers captured in Saturday's fighting.
The government sought to dampen speculation that the operation was directed at crushing the Awakening movement.
An Iraqi military spokesman told government television that operation in Fadhil was directed at "pursuing those involved in opening fire on our security forces" and not the general Sunni population.
Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the Awakening Council leader who was arrested in Fadhil, Adil al-Mashhadani, was believed to have been involved in murder, extortion and other crimes as well as leading an armed wing of Saddam's Baath party.
But suspicion between the government and the councils runs deep in Baghdad. Awakening Council leaders had complained of mistreatment by the government, including delays in receiving their salaries since they went off the U.S. payroll last year. The arrest of al-Mashhadani only served to reinforce their concerns.
"We hope the government will not arrest any member until it is proved he made mistakes," said Sheik Mustafa Kamil Shebib, leader of the Awakening Council in south Baghdad's Dora area.
Sheik Aifan Saadoun, a prominent Anbar province Awakening Council member, said no one wants criminals in the ranks but "we fear that this situation will turn into a 'settling of scores' by some political parties and we might be the victims."
A U.S. military spokesman, Col. Bill Buckner, insisted the arrest did not herald a crackdown and said the government appreciated the contribution of the councils in improving security.
Iraqi army officers were holding meetings with Awakening Council leaders in other parts of the city, apparently seeking to offer assurances that the arrest in Fadhil was not part of a move against them.
The Iraqi government assumed responsibility for paying the more than 90,000 security volunteers in October, and will take on the remaining 10,000 on April 1.
Leaders of several Awakening Council groups complained that the government has not paid them in months, with some threatening to quit the movement.
"We will wait until the end of April, and if the government does not pay us our salaries, then we will abandon our work," said Ahmed Suleiman al-Jubouri, a leader of a group that mans checkpoints in south Baghdad.
Buckner said the new budget law shifted funding for the volunteers to the Interior Ministry, which was still refining its procedures and payments would resume this week.
Under pressure from the U.S., the government agreed to accept 20,000 of the fighters into the police or army and continue paying the rest until they could find them civilian jobs.
But U.S. officials say the process has been slowed because the drop in world oil prices has cut deeply into the government's revenues, prompting a freeze on army and police recruiting.
Ahmed Abu Risha, head of the Awakening Councils in Anbar province, said the government should speed up integrating volunteers into the army and police "to avoid what happened today" in Fadhil.
Also Sunday, a roadside bomb exploded near a security patrol in the southern city of Basra, killing one security guard and three civilians, police said.
source by: Yahoo!News
An official of the local Awakening Council in the Fadhil area said Iraqi forces had taken control of the neighborhood along with U.S. soldiers and were arresting fighters. He said resistance had ceased "for the sake of people of Fadhil."
The confrontation in Fadhil, a ramshackle Sunni enclave on the east bank of the Tigris River where al-Qaida once held sway, is potentially explosive if it leads to a split between the Shiite-led government and the Awakening Councils.
The councils, also known as Sons of Iraq, are Sunni security volunteers who broke with al-Qaida and joined forces with the Americans to help guard their neighborhoods against extremists.
Shiite political leaders have never fully trusted the Awakening Councils since many of them are ex-insurgents. There have been fears that some of the fighters may return to the insurgency if they feel threatened by the Shiite-led government.
That could undermine U.S. efforts to stabilize Baghdad before American troops pull out of Iraqi cities by the end of June.
Trouble started Saturday when Iraqi troops arrested the head of Fadhil's Awakening Council for alleged terrorist activity and for purportedly leading an armed group loyal to Saddam Hussein's ousted party.
The arrest triggered fierce gunfights between Iraqi forces and Awakening Council members, killing four people and wounding 15.
Six more people, including four women, were wounded Sunday in sporadic shooting that occurred as U.S. and Iraqi soldiers began sealing off the neighborhood, police and hospital officials said.
After Sunday's gunbattles, Iraqi soldiers using loudspeakers ordered Awakening Council members in Fadhil to give up their weapons, while convoys of Iraqi and U.S. troops rolled in to secure the area, witnesses said.
Witnesses saw Iraqi troops, some accompanied by American soldiers, leading away groups of young men.
Awakening Council members, reached by telephone, said they would release five Iraqi soldiers captured in Saturday's fighting.
The government sought to dampen speculation that the operation was directed at crushing the Awakening movement.
An Iraqi military spokesman told government television that operation in Fadhil was directed at "pursuing those involved in opening fire on our security forces" and not the general Sunni population.
Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the Awakening Council leader who was arrested in Fadhil, Adil al-Mashhadani, was believed to have been involved in murder, extortion and other crimes as well as leading an armed wing of Saddam's Baath party.
But suspicion between the government and the councils runs deep in Baghdad. Awakening Council leaders had complained of mistreatment by the government, including delays in receiving their salaries since they went off the U.S. payroll last year. The arrest of al-Mashhadani only served to reinforce their concerns.
"We hope the government will not arrest any member until it is proved he made mistakes," said Sheik Mustafa Kamil Shebib, leader of the Awakening Council in south Baghdad's Dora area.
Sheik Aifan Saadoun, a prominent Anbar province Awakening Council member, said no one wants criminals in the ranks but "we fear that this situation will turn into a 'settling of scores' by some political parties and we might be the victims."
A U.S. military spokesman, Col. Bill Buckner, insisted the arrest did not herald a crackdown and said the government appreciated the contribution of the councils in improving security.
Iraqi army officers were holding meetings with Awakening Council leaders in other parts of the city, apparently seeking to offer assurances that the arrest in Fadhil was not part of a move against them.
The Iraqi government assumed responsibility for paying the more than 90,000 security volunteers in October, and will take on the remaining 10,000 on April 1.
Leaders of several Awakening Council groups complained that the government has not paid them in months, with some threatening to quit the movement.
"We will wait until the end of April, and if the government does not pay us our salaries, then we will abandon our work," said Ahmed Suleiman al-Jubouri, a leader of a group that mans checkpoints in south Baghdad.
Buckner said the new budget law shifted funding for the volunteers to the Interior Ministry, which was still refining its procedures and payments would resume this week.
Under pressure from the U.S., the government agreed to accept 20,000 of the fighters into the police or army and continue paying the rest until they could find them civilian jobs.
But U.S. officials say the process has been slowed because the drop in world oil prices has cut deeply into the government's revenues, prompting a freeze on army and police recruiting.
Ahmed Abu Risha, head of the Awakening Councils in Anbar province, said the government should speed up integrating volunteers into the army and police "to avoid what happened today" in Fadhil.
Also Sunday, a roadside bomb exploded near a security patrol in the southern city of Basra, killing one security guard and three civilians, police said.
source by: Yahoo!News
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