TORONTO - The discovery of a Chinese-based cyber spy network that infiltrated government computers around the world exposes the need for the federal government to take Internet security more seriously, a team of Canadian researchers said Monday as they discussed their findings.

The researchers said swift action is needed since the tools needed to hack confidential information are about as readily available as pirated DVDs.

Information uncovered by the Information Warfare Monitor, a joint effort of the SecDev Group in Ottawa and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, suggests almost 1,300 hosts in 103 countries were compromised by the cyber spying.

Almost 30 per cent of the computers belonged to government agencies, NGOs and the news media, which suggests the spy work may have been co-ordinated by high-level government hackers bent on accessing classified information.

Among the targets were the Tibetan government and computers in the Dalai Lama's office, which raised the spectre of the Chinese government's involvement, something that researchers refused to conclude but said is possible.

"Cyberspace is a domain that's increasingly militarized," said Ron Deibert, one of the lead researchers. "It's an object of geopolitical contestation. There is a real arms race going on.

"Those of us who care about protecting the Internet as a forum for free expression and access to information need to think about ways to rein in what's going on there, and even go so far as to think about arms control in cyberspace."

Researcher Rafal Rohozinski said the report is a wake-up call for policy-makers who have neglected to consider the global security implications of leaving information susceptible to hackers.

"We see it as a technology and an infrastructure that doesn't really require the same kind of attention that, for example, we give to airspace, sea lanes or even road traffic," he said.

"We trust it with personal information ... and we really do hope this report will push the policy debate forward among our policy-makers."

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Van Loan said cyber security is very much on his radar, and he's been talking with his counterparts in the United States about implementing new protections.

"There is not a day that goes by without somebody, somewhere in the world, trying to breach the government's computer systems," he said.

"This is going to be a growing issue for years to come."