Reports: Cyberspy network targets governments

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Nearly 1,300 computers in more than 100 countries have been attacked and have become part of an computer espionage network apparently based in China, security experts alleged in two reports Sunday.

Computers -- including machines at NATO, governments and embassies -- are infected with software that lets attackers gain complete control of them, according to the reports. One was issued by the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies in conjunction with the Ottawa, Canada-based think tank The SecDev Group; the second came from the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

Researchers have dubbed the network GhostNet. The network can not only search a computer but see and hear the people using it, according to the Canadian report.

"GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specific files, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras," the report says.

The discovery of GhostNet grew out of suspicions that the office of the Dalai Lama had been hacked.

His staff sent a foreign diplomat an e-mail invitation to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader, but before the Dalai Lama's people could follow up with a phone call, "the diplomat's office was contacted by the Chinese government and warned not to go ahead with the meeting," according to the Cambridge report.

An investigation resulted in both reports. Both found links to computers in China, but the researchers did not conclude who they thought was behind the "malware," or malicious software.

"Chinese cyber espionage is a major global concern ... [b]ut attributing all Chinese malware to deliberate or targeted intelligence gathering operations by the Chinese state is wrong and misleading," according to the Canadian report titled, "Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network."

"The sheer number of young digital natives online can more than account for the increase in Chinese malware," it adds.....more of the story from CNN