The Stuxnet virus, which infiltrates the systems used to run factories, may have been discovered only in June this year but has been labelled by some researchers as a "groundbreaking" piece of malware. We look at why Stuxnet could be the 'best' malware ever.
Experts have disagreed about when the Stuxnet attacks began - Kaspersky believes it was as early as July 2009, while Symantec traced attacks back to January 2010 - but they agree that the worm went undetected for months.
"We don't know if they succeeded or not, but I imagine that they got to the targets that they wanted," said O Murchu, citing the stealthy nature and sophistication of the worm.
"The command-and-control infrastructure of Stuxnet is very, very primitive, very basic," said Schouwenberg. "I think they were convinced that they would be able to do what they wanted before they were detected."
O Murchu will present a paper on Symantec's Stuxnet work at the Virus Bulletin security conference, which is slated to kick off on September 29 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Researchers from Microsoft and Kaspersky will present a separate paper at the same conference.
- Worm could be state-backed
- Never seen before
- Minimising the risk
- When did attacks begin?
Comments
Matt Tysoe said: A non windows machine an insurance policy
Matt Tysoe said: What about AmigaOS 41
Christian said: Beppe Brillo That may be true but there is no denying the fact that a virus writer will always get a higher ROI when targetting MS OSes A banks system may be non MS but once you infect a few workstations on that network youre quids in regardless of the server OS in many cases
Christian said: Beppe Brillo That may be true but there is no denying the fact that a virus writer will always get a higher ROI when targetting MS OSes A banks system may be non MS but once you infect a few workstations on that network youre quids in regardless of the server OS in many cases
Beppe Brillo said: Christian The other OSes arent worth targeting not true Maybe almost all desktops run winSomething but most of mission-critical servers including big service providers banking networks and other corporate users run Unix or Linux or BSD Microsoft never managed to become the near-monopolist in those sectors not even the major player For a cybercriminal to target a non-microsoft system IS worth alot
Christian said: Wow joeobo I wouldnt be so smug if I was you Maybe Windows is targeted because oh say pretty much every give or take computer on the planet runs on itThe other OSes arent worth targeting
joeobo said: Why anyone would use Windows for mission critical anything is totally beyond me Why is it the press ALWAYS leaves out the most important part in all virus coverage ONLY AFFECTS MS WINDOWS
mcburnie said: Iran was hardest hit wonder why
bob said: Surely the main reason why linux isnt as troubled by viruses is because virtually no-one uses itIf everyone switches to linux then so will the virus writers and it will be just as bad as before - probably worse actually as there wouldnt be the resources of Microsoft to fix any bugs found
ND said: Linux anyone
Mark Simpson said: There is another possibility - its SkynetTaking control of manufacturing machines so it can build Terminators lol
onion said: holy cow thats some real scary stuff