Canadian, US researchers reveal India-focused spy ring based in China
April 6th, 2010 - 1:25 pm ICT by ANIToronto, Apr 6(ANI): Canadian and United States computer security researchers have uncovered a massive network of a China-based online espionage gang breaching servers of dozens of countries, and primarily focusing on India and the Dalai Lama. According to the Globe and Mail, the intruders pilfered classified and restricted documents from the highest levels of the Indian Defense Ministry.
Stolen documents recovered in a year-long investigation, included 78 documents related to the financing of military projects in India, details of live fire exercises and missile projects, and two documents marked “secret” belonging to the national security council.
It also had classified assessments about security in several Indian states, and confidential embassy documents about India’s relationships in West Africa, Russia and the Middle East.
The report, titled ‘Shadows in the Cloud’, said that the online espionage was done with the use of seemingly harmless means such as Twitter, Google Groups, Blogspot, blog.com, Baidu Blogs and Yahoo Mail.
It also claims that every e-mail sent to or from the Dalai Lama’s offices in 2009 has shown up in the files.
The findings, which are part of a report released in Toronto on Monday, is written by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies, the Ottawa-based security firm SecDev Group and a U.S. cyber sleuthing organization known as the Shadowserver Foundation.
“This would definitely rank in the sophisticated range. While we don’t know exactly who’s behind it, we know they selected their targets with great care,” The New York Times quoted Steven Adair, a researcher with the Shadowserver Foundation, as saying.
“Essentially we went behind the backs of the attackers and picked their pockets,” said Ron Deibert, Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs. (ANI)
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Tags: dalai lama, defense ministry, e mail, fire exercises, global affairs, globe and mail, google, google groups, indian states, massive network, military projects, munk centre, national security council, new york times, ron deibert, security researchers, sophisticated range, spy ring, united states computer, university of toronto