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Two Brunei Govt Agencies Likely
Victims Of Cyber Espionage
By Ubaidillah Masli
Bandar Seri Begawan - Two Brunei
government agencies could be among the victims of the latest
international cyber-espionage network which has managed to hack into
the computer systems of governments and private organisations around
the world, gaining access to classified documents and other
information, according to a report by Canadian researchers released
yesterday.
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The report,
"Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage
Network", by Internet Warfare Monitor, a group composed of
researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group and
the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International
Studies, states that Brunei's Ministry of Communications and
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been infected by
malicious software (malware) from GhostNet, which is
believed to be based mainly in China.
The report states that
there are 1,295 infected computers located in 103 countries.
"We found that we were able
to confidently — on a scale of low, medium, high — identify
397 of the |
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1,295 infected computers
(26.7 per cent) and labelled each one as a high value
target," the report said.
"On the surface, the
names of the infected computers in the sample are
provocative. There are references to ministries of
foreign affairs, foreign embassies and other government
entities. Some contain names of officials or their
positions/ titles."
From the report,
Brunei's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has one
infection labelled low confidence, while the report was
also placed "high" confidence regarding an infection at
the Ministry of Communications.
The report says that
the maleware is sent to the "target" through email in an
attachment or web link.
"Control over some
targeted machines is maintained using the Chinese ghost
RAT (remote access tool). These Trojans (software)
generally allow for near unrestricted access to the
infected systems," the report said.
The report also shows
the methods, complete with screenshots on how the
malware extracts data from the infected machines.
-- Courtesy of The
Brunei Times |
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