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.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/29/ghostnet.cyber.espionage/index.html

I'm not clicking any links from a post about a virus.

extremely old...

People have been doing that since the 90s...

anyone remember Sub-seven and all the add ons? You could turn people's monitors on and off, watch them on their webcams/microphones... etc..

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/29/ghostnet.cyber.espionage/index.html


There it is cold. Heat it up for yourself. Its kinda scary shit.

SubSeven was fun!

back orifice and netbus were even older and did the same things...

this is nothing new at all...

CNN as usual is way behind the times...

i can't go into what the newest threats against our DoD computers are, but they aren't 1990s era trojans... that's for sure...

This is not new. it is however, professional, executed better than any of the crap seen before.

You need to read the reporting, not the newspaper.

QFT I completely forgot about those programs!