China Based Spy Network Uncovered - Targets Dalai Lama And Foreign Affairs Offices

Researchers from SecDev Group, an Ottawa-based think tank, and the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies working on behalf of the Dalai Lama's office have uncovered an elaborate electronic spy network working mostly from within China. After a 10-month investigation the researchers found that as well as the Dalai Lama's office, the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan all appear to had been the targets of the spys. Hacked systems were also found in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan, according to the BBC. "We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama," investigator Greg Walton was quoted by the Associated Press.

The researchers point out that there is no conclusive evidence of Chinese government involvement.

China upset by award given to Dalai Lama, hijacks search engine traffic

The CBC has posted speculations that the Chinese government, upset by President Bush's awarding of the Dalai Lama with a Congressional Gold Medal, is hijacking traffic meant for Google and Yahoo and directing it to the Chinese-owned Baidu search engine. The Chinese government routinely censors internet content and blocks web pages but this move is seen as a retaliatory reaction to the US's support for a figure that the Chinese see as a threat. Can't we just all get along and play nice?

Update: InfoWorld is reporting a contrary story saying "Internet users in Beijing and Shanghai said attempts to access Google and other search engines were successful Friday, despite claims on a U.S. blog that traffic to these sites was redirected to Chinese search engine Baidu.com."

cat? mouse?