infiltrated 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 said 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, and in most cases staff remained unaware that their
systems had been attacked.
"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."
In London, Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Weimin suggested the report
was part of a Tibetan media and propaganda campaign.
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