Michael S. Swenson
Underground Brooklyn
Monday, March 30, 2009

In what has become a bit of a disturbing trend this week, yet another computer infiltration article was posted today on CNN.com.

According to the article, “nearly 1,300 computers in more than 100 countries have been attacked and have become part of an computer espionage network apparently based in China, security experts alleged in two reports Sunday.”

The mysterious network, dubbed “Ghostnet” by researchers, has many dubious capabilities, including the ability to see everything in a network, as well as “hear the people using it”, according to the article. “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.”

Since the attacks on September 11th, 2001, which many have called a “false-flag operation”, meaning elements within the Federal Government carried out the attacks while blaming it on its enemies, there has yet to be a massive Internet attack which would, no doubt, cripple the global infrastructure, especially in these unstable times. But could one be in the works in order to usher in complete worldwide government control of the Internet?

In an article posted earlier this week by the Associated Press, a fast-moving Internet worm, known as the Conficker Worm, has deviously ravaged the PC’s of more than 3 million users worldwide. The worm is reportedly “set to spring to life in a new way on Wednesday — April Fools’ Day….That’s when many of the poisoned machines will get more aggressive about “phoning home” to the worm’s creators over the Internet. When that happens, the bad guys behind the worm will be able to trigger the program to send spam, spread more infections, clog networks with traffic, or try and bring down Web sites.”

The sudden rash of these types of stories over the span of just a few days seems more than just a strange coincidence. Especially given the fact, according to an article posted by earlier this week here at Underground Brooklyn, Australia is moving toward an “Internet Blacklist”. In the article, I outlined how the list is “not censorship of the type practiced by China or Saudi Arabia”, it has effectively included over 2,400 sites, including a dentist’s office, poker sites and a PG-rated site displaying images by a controversial Australian photographer.

This move by the Australian government, combined with major pushes from Europe for extreme net censorship and the dire warnings about this Chinese “Ghostnet”, is indeed putting up red flags.

But that is not all….

According to a post on the “ReleaseLog” blog on Wednesday (directly sourced from PC World), “China appears to be blocking all access to YouTube…YouTube use from China started dropping off the map sometime Monday night, with traffic nearly reaching a standstill by Tuesday morning. Google (which owns YouTube) has confirmed the apparent ban, though its staff is not certain of the cause. “We do not know the reason for the blockage, and we’re working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users in China,” a spokesperson says. Google does believe the Chinese government knowingly cut the access. The spokesperson, however, questions why officials wouldn’t have just blocked a specific video, as they’ve done before, rather than nixing the entire site.”

And finally, in a video posted on YouTube by Russia Today on Thursday, under a newly proposed “international copyright treaty”, the government may be given open access to people’s personal computers. The video can be seen below: