Worms do China's spying

An interesting article from an Austrailian IT publication recently that conjectures that worms are being used in nation-state warfare. The article makes the claim that industrial espionage is being facilitated by the use of malware like worms and Trojan horse programs, which can be used to access documents on remote systems.

Cyberspace is becoming a new battleground for the United States and China, amid growing concerns about Chinese industrial espionage through various types of computer worms, security experts say.

At least one "Trojan horse" program used to steal files from infected computers has been traced to servers in China, providing further evidence that US companies may be targets, say analysts.

Security firms have long been concerned about various types of malicious software used to steal files or passwords. But some newer programs seem designed as a more sophisticated and targeted effort.

Source: Worms do China's spying,  July 25, 2005.

For some additional background, see this recent Forbes magazine piece which features the LURHQ analysis.