Warning: Your Computer May Be Infiltrated by a 'Ghost'

And the "ghosts" doing the infiltrating come almost exclusively from China.

In the first detection ever of a massive intrusion of computers, a team of scientists from the University of Toronto has determined that "a vast spying operation" has infiltrated hundreds of computers throughout the world, including those of the Dalai Lama.

The researchers from the university's Munk Center for International Studies have tracked down the "malware," and almost every time the source turned out to be from China. 

The spying operation, which the scientists call "GhostNet," stole hundreds of documents from computers belonging to both government and private organizations, including offices of the Dalai Lama throughout the world.

The New York Times:

[The researchers'] 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.

Intelligence analysts say many governments, including those of China, Russia and the United States, and other parties use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information.

The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected.

(...)

Still going strong, the operation continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers said in their report, “Tracking ‘GhostNet’: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network.” They said they had found no evidence that United States 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.

The malware is remarkable both for its sweep — in computer jargon, it has not been merely “phishing” for random consumers’ information, but “whaling” for particular important targets — and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed.

The director of the Munk Center's Citizen Lab, Ronald Deibert, participated in the World Press Freedom Committee's Beijing Olympics: Championing Press Freedom conference held in Paris in April of 2008. In his lecture, he warned that China had become "the world's most active filterer of Internet content."

Could it be that China is also the largest Internet spy on the planet?