Big Brother is Watch and He is Chinese

[BaalChatzaf]

Please see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GhostNet

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Selene]

Yep.

They are our enemies and we better accept it now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technolo...y.html?emc=eta1

Adam

[anonrobt]

If they can do it, so can others - ones ye know not of...

[BaalChatzaf]

If they can do it, so can others - ones ye know not of...

Hopefully we can do it too.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

If a person does not click the links--or has a problem loading the other site--or the other site goes off the air--he can read an awfully comical discussion with some recent threads. This thread is one such.

Look at the following. Do we really want people to read this later on when this thread becomes an archive? An idea or two in the comments would be most welcome.

Please see:

Yep.

They are our enemies and we better accept it now.

If they can do it, so can others - ones ye know not of...

Hopefully we can do it too.

Hmmmmmm...

Michael

[tjohnson]

Good point Micheal, this has been bothering for awhile. I have gotten into a habit of ignoring posts that are basically nothing but a link.

[Brant Gaede]

Little brother is watching too.

--Brant

[Christopher]

Man, if we keep posting our thoughts on a forum, soon everyone's gonna know what we're thinking!

[Selene]

I would say fuck the state, but that is much to nice an action to do to it.

[Christopher]

I would say fuck the state, but that is much to nice an action to do to it.

I know what you're thinking, and my vote is going to send the state to hunt you down! Oh crap, I mean.... I don't have a "ghost net," I just happen to guess what you're thinking... and if there's any implication that I know what you're thinking, it is purely coincidental to the possibility that I have a computer that checks up on others.

Edited March 30, 2009 by Christopher

[Selene]

When they come - I make head shots

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Just so this thread does not go off into obscurity for a future visitor, here is a summary of the ideas. The first link is to a Wikipedia article on GhostNet, which is a Chinese hacking project for infiltrating and spying on high-level government computers over the Internet.

GhostNet

GhostNet is the name given to a recently-discovered, large-scale hacking or possible electronic spying operation, based mainly in the People's Republic of China, which has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries. Computer systems which would normally be expected to have high levels of security protection have been compromised, including many belonging to banks, embassies, foreign ministries, and other government offices around the world, as well as the Dalai Lama's Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London, and New York City.[1][2]

Discovery

The 'GhostNet' was discovered and named by researchers at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, after a 10-month investigation. The discovery of the 'Ghostnet', and details of its operations, were reported by The New York Times on March 29, 2009.[1][3] Investigators focused initially on allegations of Chinese cyber-espionage against the Tibetan exile community, such as instances where where email correspondence and other data were stolen.[4] This led to the discovery of a much wider network of compromised machines.

Compromised systems were discovered in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan. The foreign ministries of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan were also targeted.[5][6] No evidence was found that U.S. or U.K. government offices were infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored for half a day and the computers of the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C. were infiltrated.[6][7][8]

There is more to the article for those interested. The second link goes to a NYT article:

Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries

By JOHN MARKOFF

New York Times

March 28, 2009

From the article (which charmingly used the term "whaling" in addition to "phishing"):

The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware.

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.

. . .

Early this month, Mr. Villeneuve noticed an odd string of 22 characters embedded in files created by the malicious software and searched for it with Google. It led him to a group of computers on Hainan Island, off China, and to a Web site that would prove to be critically important.

In a puzzling security lapse, the Web page that Mr. Villeneuve found was not protected by a password, while much of the rest of the system uses encryption.

Mr. Villeneuve and his colleagues figured out how the operation worked by commanding it to infect a system in their computer lab in Toronto. On March 12, the spies took their own bait. Mr. Villeneuve watched a brief series of commands flicker on his computer screen as someone — presumably in China — rummaged through the files. Finding nothing of interest, the intruder soon disappeared.

Through trial and error, the researchers learned to use the system’s Chinese-language “dashboard” — a control panel reachable with a standard Web browser — by which one could manipulate themore than 1,200 computers worldwide that had by then been infected.

Infection happens two ways. In one method, a user’s clicking on a document attached to an e-mail message lets the system covertly install software deep in the target operating system. Alternatively, a user clicks on a Web link in an e-mail message and is taken directly to a “poisoned” Web site.

Wanna see the other side of the coin?

As a coincidence, I recently discovered a wonderful proxy called UltraSurf. For those who don't know what a proxy is, your computer has a numerical identification number. A proxy is a program that temporarily assigns you a new number so the sites you visit have no way to identify you. It's like a false passport so to speak.

In China, they have a problem with censorship on the Internet. But there are many Chinese who are curious and highly intelligent. So the more rebellions-minded teamed up with some people in Silicon Valley and came up with a turbo-charged proxy system that is so encrypted the Chinese censors and censor programs cannot identify that the person is from China, much less who the person is.

It has some limitations (like the small number of IP's and it works a lot better on IE than Firefox), but it's really cool, especially speed-wise. Here is the link for the spook-minded:

UltraSurf

There.

That's a little bit more information than "they're coming to get us..."

Michael

[anonrobt]

Just so this thread does not go off into obscurity for a future visitor, here is a summary of the ideas. The first link is to a Wikipedia article on GhostNet, which is a Chinese hacking project for infiltrating and spying on high-level government computers over the Internet.

GhostNet

GhostNet is the name given to a recently-discovered, large-scale hacking or possible electronic spying operation, based mainly in the People's Republic of China, which has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries. Computer systems which would normally be expected to have high levels of security protection have been compromised, including many belonging to banks, embassies, foreign ministries, and other government offices around the world, as well as the Dalai Lama's Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London, and New York City.[1][2]

Discovery

The 'GhostNet' was discovered and named by researchers at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, after a 10-month investigation. The discovery of the 'Ghostnet', and details of its operations, were reported by The New York Times on March 29, 2009.[1][3] Investigators focused initially on allegations of Chinese cyber-espionage against the Tibetan exile community, such as instances where where email correspondence and other data were stolen.[4] This led to the discovery of a much wider network of compromised machines.

Compromised systems were discovered in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan. The foreign ministries of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan were also targeted.[5][6] No evidence was found that U.S. or U.K. government offices were infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored for half a day and the computers of the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C. were infiltrated.[6][7][8]

There is more to the article for those interested. The second link goes to a NYT article:

Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries

By JOHN MARKOFF

New York Times

March 28, 2009

From the article (which charmingly used the term "whaling" in addition to "phishing"):

The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware.

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.

. . .

Early this month, Mr. Villeneuve noticed an odd string of 22 characters embedded in files created by the malicious software and searched for it with Google. It led him to a group of computers on Hainan Island, off China, and to a Web site that would prove to be critically important.

In a puzzling security lapse, the Web page that Mr. Villeneuve found was not protected by a password, while much of the rest of the system uses encryption.

Mr. Villeneuve and his colleagues figured out how the operation worked by commanding it to infect a system in their computer lab in Toronto. On March 12, the spies took their own bait. Mr. Villeneuve watched a brief series of commands flicker on his computer screen as someone — presumably in China — rummaged through the files. Finding nothing of interest, the intruder soon disappeared.

Through trial and error, the researchers learned to use the system’s Chinese-language “dashboard” — a control panel reachable with a standard Web browser — by which one could manipulate themore than 1,200 computers worldwide that had by then been infected.

Infection happens two ways. In one method, a user’s clicking on a document attached to an e-mail message lets the system covertly install software deep in the target operating system. Alternatively, a user clicks on a Web link in an e-mail message and is taken directly to a “poisoned” Web site.

Wanna see the other side of the coin?

As a coincidence, I recently discovered a wonderful proxy called UltraSurf. For those who don't know what a proxy is, your computer has a numerical identification number. A proxy is a program that temporarily assigns you a new number so the sites you visit have no way to identify you. It's like a false passport so to speak.

In China, they have a problem with censorship on the Internet. But there are many Chinese who are curious and highly intelligent. So the more rebellions-minded teamed up with some people in Silicon Valley and came up with a turbo-charged proxy system that is so encrypted the Chinese censors and censor programs cannot identify that the person is from China, much less who the person is.

It has some limitations (like the small number of IP's and it works a lot better on IE than Firefox), but it's really cool, especially speed-wise. Here is the link for the spook-minded:

UltraSurf

There.

That's a little bit more information than "they're coming to get us..."

Michael

There's always two sides to every sword...;-)