More Chinese Cyber Espionage?

From the New York Times,

A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded.

In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved

Pay particular note to how this particular spy network was created. According to the article,

Infection happens two ways. In one method, a user’s clicking on a document attached to an e-mail message lets the system covertly install software deep in the target operating system. Alternatively, a user clicks on a Web link in an e-mail message and is taken directly to a “poisoned” Web site.

This is of particular importance because it demonstrates how easy it is to conduct cyber espionage.

See the rest of the article here.

UPDATE: See a full version of the University of Cambridge's report entitled The snooping dragon: social-malware surveillance of the Tibetan movement

See a full version of the Information Warfare Monitor's report entitled Tracking Ghostnet