DHARAMSHALA: A researcher at a leading computer security firm said the Central Tibetan Administration’s Chinese language website has been hacked and infected with viruses.

Kurt Baumgartner, a researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said that the security breaches involved a two-stage attack technique known as “water holing,” where hackers first infect a site that is frequently visited by people whose computers they want to control.

He said: “At this point in time, it seems that the few systems attacked with this code are located in China and the US, although there could be more. Technical evidence suggests the group behind the campaign was also responsible for previous breaches on the website as well as attacks on groups that focus on human rights in Asia.”

Hackers use malicious software that automatically drops viruses on computers running Microsoft Corp’s Windows and Apple Inc’s Mac operating systems and infect machines by exploiting security bugs in Oracle Corp’s Java software.

The Tibetan Computer Resource Centre of the Central Tibetan Administartion has cleared the website of the virus.

In addition to Chinese, the CTA maintains websites in English and Tibetan languages.