GhostNet

GhostNet (simplified Chinese: 幽灵网; traditional Chinese: 幽靈網; pinyin: YōuLíngWǎng) is the name given by researchers at the Information Warfare Monitor to a large-scale cyber spying operation discovered in March 2009. The operation is likely associated with an Advanced Persistent Threat. Its command and control infrastructure is based mainly in the People's Republic of China and has infiltrated high-value political, economic and media locations in 103 countries. Computer systems belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, and the Dalai Lama's Tibetan exile centers in India, London and New York City were compromised.

GhostNet was discovered and named following a 10-month investigation by the Infowar Monitor (IWM), carried out after IWM researchers approached the Dalai Lama's representative in Geneva suspecting that their computer network had been infiltrated. The IWM is composed of researchers from The SecDev Group and Canadian consultancy and the Citizen Lab, Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto; the research findings were published in the Infowar Monitor, an affiliated publication. Researchers from the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, supported by the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection, also contributed to the investigation at one of the three locations in Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is located. The discovery of the 'GhostNet', and details of its operations, were reported by The New York Times on March 29, 2009. Investigators focused initially on allegations of Chinese cyber-espionage against the Tibetan exile community, such as instances where email correspondence and other data were extracted.

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