Over the past two months there has been a significant increase in targeted malware and other attacks against the Tibetan Community and its supporters. Ironcove.net has put together a paper that covers the various attacks and looks into the possibility and extent of Chinese Government involvement in those attacks. We have also highlighted the fact that many of these attacks would be ineffective against an Ubuntu Desktop operating system.
It is the recommendation of ironcove.net that human rights groups around the world should start to seriously look at the benefits of running a free and open operating system such as Ubuntu Linux. Today a new release of Ubuntu has been launched, it is a great time to sample the power of Open Source.
When Dragons Attack (PDF)
Our friends over at HackerTarget.com have recently started offering free Nessus Vulnerability Scanning to non-profit organisations. Nessus is the worlds leading vulnerability scanning solution. It is a tool that scans an IP address for vulnerabilities so that they can then be acted upon and fixed. In some ways it is a simulated hacker attack against your server – so that when you do get scanned by hackers, your security holes have already been fixed. If you run any internet connected server it is a good idea to test it for security problems on a regular basis.
Free Vulnerability Scanning for Nonprofits
The Register has a summary of more targeted malware attacks against the Tibetan Community and Supporters. The attack involves an email that when the flash movie is viewed it will install a keylogger on the computer. The keylogger will then record all keystrokes on the computer and send the details to a server in China.
Now I am not going to point fingers and I would like to do some more research into these attacks and the possible origins. Remember just because it appears the attacks are coming from China nothing is certain, as this could as easily be a bored teenager in the USA who compromised a server in China or it could be something more sinister.
It does highlight however the importance of secure internet and computing facilities in any organization or movement.
Read the article here for a summary and there is a good technical blog with more details here.
Executing the file, called RaceForTibet.exe, shows a cartoon with a very skilled Chinese gymnast performing some amazingly convoluted exercise on a “vaulting Bbox” for which the jury immediately scored her a shocking 0! Whilst the gymnast’s performance is “re-wound,” a number of fairly stark photographs of real events, taking place throughout China and Tibet, are shown as a flashback.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/15/pro_tibet_trojan/
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/04/14/is-malware-writing-the-next-olympic-event
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/03/11/social-engineering-tricks-use-tibet-to-lure-victims/
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/04/10/friebet-attacking-your-backend-database-from-your-backyard/
China is still in the news with Cyber Attacks making headlines. Political hacking by government and non-government organisations seems to becoming a hot topic.
Politically motivated external attacks have been rife in the past few weeks.
Members of the Save Darfur coalition told the Washington Post last week that their server had been attacked by hackers traced to computers in China.
And several pro-Tibet groups reported receiving email viruses although IP addresses have yet to be traced.
Last summer also saw allegations of cyber espionage attacks on Whitehall departments, as well as a warning to UK businesses from MI5 that Chinese hackers were looking to infiltrate their networks.
China cracks down on insider cyber hacking
