GhostNet & Creating a Culture of User Security

OpenConcept: Listening to CBC’s Search Engine Podcast I was reminded again of how much our perceptions of security have changed and how much organizations and activists need to do to be mindful of the people they are working to support. For those folks who missed the news on this item, the office of the Dalai Lama brought in the Munk Centre for International Studies’ Citizen Lab to investigate some issues they were having with their computers. Turns out that an Microsoft Word document containing a Trojan horse that allowed the attacker to list and access any documents available to their computer (including on their networks), any keystrokes made on that computer and even allowed the attacker to turn on the victim’s webcam and see/hear their conversations. This large-scale cyber spying operation was given the name GhostNet.