Twitter Among Tools Hackers Used To Crack Dalai Lama’s Computers
Posted April 6, 2010 3:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Twitter and email were among the tools used by Chinese hackers to access highly sensitive documents from the Dalai Lama’s offices and national security data from India, Canadian researchers said Tuesday.
“What the Shadow report shows is that the social media clouds of cyberspace we rely upon today have a dark, hidden core,” said researcher Ron Deibert.
“There is a vast subterranean ecosystem to cyberspace within which criminal and espionage networks thrive.”
The report released Tuesday, entitled “Shadows in the Cloud,” should serve as a wake-up call to Ottawa to set both domestic and foreign policy on cyberspace before Canada becomes the target of a so-called shadow network, he added.
The report found that hackers operating out of China used email and Twitter to steal highly sensitive data, including documents from Indian national security and the Dalai Lama’s offices in Tibet. The data also includes information provided to Indian authorities by third-party nationals, including Canadian visa applicants.
The report is the result of a collaboration between the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies and the Ottawa-based security firm SecDev Group.
International governments are waging a competitive arms race in cyberspace that’s preventing co-operation on global cyber security, added Deibert, the director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre and a principal with the SecDev Group.
The report said it found no evidence of involvement by the Chinese government. Still, its findings put Beijing on the defensive.
Separate reports earlier this year said security investigators had traced attacks on Google and other companies to China-based computers.
“We have from time to time heard this kind of news. I don’t know the purpose of stirring up these issues,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
“We are firmly opposed to various kinds of hacking activities through the Internet.”
China will fight cybercrime according to law, she added.
There was no immediate comment from the Indian government. Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna is visiting China this week to take part in celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the countries.
The office of the Dalai Lama said it was aware of the new hacking report. Spokesman Tenzin Takhlha said the office is working closely with the researchers to secure its computer systems.
With files from the Associated Press
