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The former spy said that MAS [Military Affairs Security] has hired foreign computer technicians and hackers to monitor e-mail messages and telephone conversations at home and in neighboring countries, where the regime’s critics and activists take refuge. "The technicians and hackers are North Koreans, Singaporeans and Russians."
Kyaw Myint Myo warned exiled opposition groups to be careful of using cell phones and the Internet, as all sensitive information, messages and phone conversations are carefully monitored.
He said exiled opposition groups not only had to be worried about Burmese informers and spies, but governments in the region with close ties to the regime that regularly provided intelligence information. "We have photos of exile group offices and houses where opposition leaders are staying."
Kyaw Myint Myo also revealed that his counter-intelligence department had a plan to launch the "data thief project", in which operatives would steal data from opposition groups inside and outside Burma.
Although he refused to give the names of informants and spies who are currently working for the military government, he did say: "You would be quite surprised if I disclosed the names of informants at foreign missions and opposition groups."
Under Khin Nyunt, the Burmese embassy in Bangkok was highly active and believed to have a large intelligence network inside Thailand. Kyaw Myint Myo claims that "active cells" in India and Thailand are still working for MAS.
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Recent graduates of Burma’s military academies now have the option of training to hunt down cyber dissidents and disrupt anti-government Web sites, according to sources close to the military. Some 50 military officers have been attending a three-month course, scheduled to end this month, to learn how to intercept e-mail messages and detect their sources. Participating officers were carefully selected based on their previous computer knowledge and language skills.
The move is thought to have been conceived to block dissidents’ access to foreign and exile media groups. Sources say the new recruits are expected to monitor communications from politicians, activists, journalists, writers and NGO workers in Rangoon. The junta is also said to be sending selected students to China and Singapore for advanced IT studies, as they have done several times in the past.
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China "has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to protect friendly computer systems and networks," according to a recent report from the US Defense Department (DoD). In previous years, the Pentagon's annual report to Congress on China's military power has indicated that China was focusing on defensive measures, so the shift to offensive tactics merits attention.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9021663&source=rss_topic17
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132284-pg,1/article.html
Editors' Notes
— Skoudis : Reports like this and the recent cyber attacks against Estonia may indicate a coming shift in the dominant threat we face. Such a shift has happened before. Before 2003, our dominant threats were hobbyists and insiders. In 2003 and 2004, the threat then changed to organized crime looking to make money. Depending on the geopolitical environment, the dominant threat may shift again, and very quickly, to state-sponsored cyber warfare. Note also that the state and organized crime threats are not mutually exclusive. It has been reported that in the Estonian case, the attackers rented bot-nets from cyber crime organizations.
— Honan : The ongoing cyber attacks against Estonian websites, covered in a recent NewsBites edition http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/newsbites.php?vol=9&issue=40 should serve as a sobering reminder that Cyber Warfare is not a theoretical threat but a very effective and real one that nation states need to address.
— Schultz : When the concept of information warfare was introduced, it was immediately embraced by the military and intelligence community, but there did not seem to be very much substance behind it. The opposite is now true--security risks related to information warfare activity must now be clearly recognized, monitored, and mitigated.
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Cyberspace is an emerging frontier in the fight for human rights, and firewalls and identity maskers are the new tools for dodging oppressive regimes.
Advocates of democracy and free speech routinely use websites and e-mail to spread their messages, prompting wary officials in China, North Korea, Burma and numerous other countries to clamp down on the digital domain.
Through electronic surveillance and outright censorship, governments are trying to assert control over the Internet.
The Russian-born Vitaliev, who recently moved to Montreal, has conducted training sessions in about two dozen countries—from Guatemala to Zimbabwe—to help human rights defenders feel more at ease about going online.
But it seems Big Brother is never far away.
"This affects these people in a very real way, and sometimes in a very dangerous way, so you have to be very careful," said Vitaliev.
For him, the strongarm tactics of authorities only confirm the need for better computer security.
Vitaliev launched a how-to book at the recent Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in Montreal, an annual meeting that examines the impact of information technology on people's lives.
Digital Security & Privacy for Human Rights Defenders, published with the backing of the Irish group Front Line, uses simple language and illustrations to demystify subjects like password protection, encryption and backing up data.
Working with Front Line and the Amsterdam-based Tactical Technology Collective, Vitaliev has also helped distribute 1,900 copies of NGO-in-a-Box — a disc loaded with an array of security software tools aimed at turning any activist with a laptop into a one-person non-governmental organization.
"There is a spread of oppressive technology. There is a spread of oppressive legislation," Vitaliev said. "But we are also seeing some better tools being developed in our community to give people a chance."
On the Web :
Front Line
www.frontlinedefenders.org/manual/en/esecman
Tactical Technology Collective
www.tacticaltech.org
Hacktivismo
www.hacktivismo.com
The above are not the complete articles