Hacker-Hit Tibetan Monks 'Detach From Attachments' Buffeted by persistent cyberattacks, Tibetan monks are giving new meaning to their ancient creed: Detach from attachments. "Attachment can lead you to all sort of trouble and we Buddhists believe that non-attachment alone can lead you to happiness," 30-year-old monk Jamyang Palden told The Associated Press at a cafe in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, before giving the philosophy its Information Age twist: "We have to learn to be suspicious of email attachments." The Internet safety slogan, one of several messages championed by digital security group Tibet Action Institute, is an example of how human rights defenders are seeking creative ways to protect activists from electronic espionage. "It's cheesy, but it's memorable," said Freya Putt, a Vancouver-based activist. There's little doubt that groups like Tibet Action need protection. A major study published Tuesday by Internet watchdog Citizen Lab shows that it and other civil society organizations have been penetrated by cyberspies, many of them linked to China. And the report says that those behind the compromises are the same hackers responsible for high-profile attacks on major multinationals and Western governments. "They're using the same weaponry, the same arsenal - indiscriminately," said Citizen Lab director Ronald Deibert. Deibert's study draws on four years of research with Tibet Action and nine other cooperating civil society groups. Eight are China or Tibet-focused; two are large international human rights organizations. Altogether the groups forwarded more than 800 suspicious emails to Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs. Experts there scanned the emails for malicious software, checked several organizations' networks for intruders, interviewed campaigners and, in the case of one particularly hard-hit human rights organization, combed through half a dozen hard drives. All 10 groups were compromised at some point during the study, many of them through emails carrying booby-trapped attachments. In a 2012 attack email shared with the AP, Tibet Action's director Lhadon Tethong was approached by a hacker impersonating a well-known China scholar, asking whether she would proof-read a list of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire in protest against the government in Beijing. "Would you please have a look and make necessary corrections?" the email asks. That attack failed - Tethong sensed a trap when she noticed the email did not come from the scholar's professional address - but others succeeded. Deibert said one rights group had its network compromised by "APT1" - a prolific hacking crew whose activities have been tied to China's People's Liberation Army - for 20 months. The Chinese Embassy in London did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the report. Beijing is often accused of masterminding electronic attacks against an array of targets, including human rights groups. It's a charge it regularly denies. Most targets of the attacks studied by Citizen Lab are anonymous, something Deibert says is in part because security holes identified by his colleagues remain unpatched. That means the organizations could be at greater risk if their names got out. Others may simply fear losing face. "There's still a stigma in some circles around computer breaches of any sort," Deibert said.