Chinese Cyberspies Watching Me On My Webcam

2009-03-30

Seems to be one of the big stories this weekend/today (from the FT):

A Chinese spying operation has obtained sensitive data from hundreds of government computers in more than 100 countries, according to a new report.

University of Toronto experts found 1,295 infected computers around the world and observed the operation stealing documents and watching and listening to users through webcams and microphones.

The report will spark fresh alarm about the extent of information warfare and, in particular, about Chinese hacking. The high proportion of “high-value” infections suggested the existence of a targeted spying operation rather than a criminal network.

The researchers could not establish that the Chinese government was behind the hacking effort – dubbed GhostNet – but they noted that the targets were groups of particular interest to Beijing.

I'm not so sure that I buy into this whole GhostNet thing. Let's look at the facts:

1. Efficient and coordinated network.

2. Sensitive targets.

3. Watching/listening to users.

Obviously they had a super-secret agenda and they were backed by serious resources. Sure, it could be a government effort. However, there is another possibility that makes a lot more sense: robots.

It's not GhostNet, it's SkyNet. They're studying governments so that they can take over more easily when the time is right. They are watching and listening to us to better understand human behavior.

C'mon, this is rather obvious. Don't these guys from the University of Toronto watch any TV or movies? If so, I think they could put the pieces together.

By the way, do not be alarmed. I for one welcome our new robot overlords. I have it on good authority that the latest models are built to look like hot 20-something girls. So not only is resistance futile, it's simply not necessary. The world economy is crumbling — we've pretty much screwed it up big time. I'm ready to let the hot robot hacker chicks from the future run things for a while.

On second thought, robots wouldn't have been caught by a bunch of geeks in Toronto. Someone was sloppy. I'm leaning towards government involvement again. Just disregard what I said about robot overlords — I got caught up in the heat of the moment.

Tags: China News