Computer spying network touched 103 countries.

The operation probably started around 2004, the time security researchers noticed that many of these institutions were being sent bogus e-mail messages with executable files attached to them, according to Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at F-Secure. Hypponen, who has been tracking the attacks for years, says that GhostNet's tactics have evolved considerably from those early days. "For the past three-and-a-half years or so it's been fairly advanced and fairly technical."

"It's really good to see a spotlight on this while thing right now, because it's been going on for so long and nobody's been paying attention," he added.

that's a long time to know about something and only get real notice now

The University of Toronto report classified close to 30 percent of the infected computers as being "high-value" targets. Those machines belong to the ministry of foreign affairs of Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Latvia and the Philippines. Also infected were computers belonging to the embassies of Cyprus, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malta, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

International groups infected included the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) secretariat, SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and the Asian Development Bank; some news organizations such as the U.K. affiliate of the Associated Press; and an unclassified NATO computer.
that's a scary amount of people. fortunately neither nigeria or south africa are on that list. guess we can spot a screwy link miles away