Chasing Ghostnet, a espionage network w/ 1295 infected PCs

The actual PDF: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/10731/15987355.pdf

WAY over-rated story. The network is built using a script kiddy tool called Gh0st RAT, which relies solely on social engineering to propagate. There are no new exploits here, or nothing as sophisticated as confiker especially since Gh0st RAT is a simple client/server model that is very easy to block (infact, most firewalls should already be blocking it).

The security company that wrote that report probably charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for information that any competent network admin could have found online or would already know if they kept up to date with the 'latest' (ie. 10 year old) threats.

It just happens that one of these networks hits a high-valued target, and then propagates. Note that most of the victims are incredibly unsophisticated and from poorer countries or organizations without a clue.

The lesson here should be about training computer users and having competent administration and support of IT infrastructure, rather than a scare campaign about Chinese government hacking. ('oh the host server is a Chinese IP, it must be the government! (300M net users in China.. durgh)).

60 minutes just ran a story on Ghostnet. It is a terrible development-- these networks undermine online trust and e-commerce everywhere.