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posted by janrinok on Thursday June 11 2015, @01:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the doctor-heal-thyself! dept.

The BBC reports:

One of the leading anti-virus software providers has revealed that its own systems were recently compromised by hackers.

Kaspersky Lab said it believed the attack was designed to spy on its newest technologies.

It said the intrusion involved up to three previously unknown techniques.

The Russian firm added that it was continuing to carry out checks, but believed it had detected the intrusion at an early stage.

Although it acknowledged that the attackers had managed to access some of its files, it said that the data it had seen was "in no way critical to the operation" of its products.

Additionally, an Anonymous Coward also provides an article from Der Spiegel, which says:

Analysts at Kaspersky's Moscow headquarters had already been familiar with important features of the malware that was being used against them. They believe it is a modernized and redeveloped version of the Duqu cyber weapon, which made international headlines in 2011. The cyber weapons system that has now been discovered has a modular structure and seems to build on the earlier Duqu platform.

In fact, says Vitaly Kamluk, Kaspersky's principal security researcher and a key member of the team that analyzed the new virus, some of the software passages and methods are "very similar or almost identical" to Duqu. The company is now referring to the electronic intruder as "Duqu 2.0." "We have concluded that it is the same attacker," says Kamluk.

When asked who they believe could be behind the software, Kaspersky officials are typically vague -- which is the typical attitude shown by international IT security vendors when it comes to the question of attribution. The modular Duqu arsenal is "extremely complex and very, very expensive," says Kamluk. "Cyber criminals are not behind this. We are probably dealing with nation-state attackers." As is often the case in the difficult search for the true originators of cyber attacks, which technology can easily cover up, the targets themselves could provide the best clues about who may have perpetrated the attack.

It also suggests that Israel could be behind the attack, although this seems rather speculative.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday June 11 2015, @01:41PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday June 11 2015, @01:41PM (#194946) Journal

    http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/10/413389686/israel-linked-spy-virus-discovered-at-hotels-used-for-iran-nuclear-talks [npr.org]

    Kaspersky says it assigned a team to watch its movements, and the team members found out they were dealing with Duqu — a malware program that previous reports had connected to the Israeli government.

    Subsequently, Kaspersky launched a worldwide search for the virus on millions of computers and discovered it in three luxury hotels in Europe. All of those hotels, Kaspersky says, were used during talks between Iran and Western powers over Iran's nuclear deal.

    The Journal had previously reported [npr.org] that Israel had spied on the Iran nuclear talks.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/spy-virus-linked-to-israel-targeted-hotels-used-for-iran-nuclear-talks-1433937601 [wsj.com]

    "Researchers at the company acknowledge that many questions remain unanswered about how the virus was used and what information may have been stolen. Among the possibilities, the researchers say, the intruders might have been able to eavesdrop on conversations and steal electronic files by commandeering the hotel systems that connect to computers, phones, elevators and alarms, allowing them to turn them on and off at will to collect information.

    "Israeli officials have denied spying on the U.S. or Israel's other allies, although they acknowledge conducting close surveillance on Iranians generally. Israeli officials declined to comment specifically on the allegations relating to the Duqu virus and the hotel intrusions.

    "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the Kaspersky analysis and hasn't independently confirmed the firm's conclusions, according to people familiar with the discussions. U.S. officials, though, said they weren't surprised to learn about the reported intrusions at the hotels used for the nuclear talks."

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Thursday June 11 2015, @02:01PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 11 2015, @02:01PM (#194952) Journal

    Israel has one of the most one sided alliances in the world.

    Constantly(Well, okay, not literally at all times) trying to undermine the geopolitical goals of your biggest financial and military supporter would be an unsustainable situation for any other nation. Well, except Saudi Arabia. They do the same thing. Just not as well.

    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @02:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @02:28PM (#194956)

      You should look into how much financial aid they actually get, it amounts to about 1% of their GDP and is irrelevant.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:06PM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:06PM (#194978) Journal

        Holy shit. You think 1% of a nation's GDP is "irrelevant"?

        God damn am I glad you're not in charge of anything important.

      • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:13PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:13PM (#194987)

        To put this in perspective, the US GDP is about 1.1% "Education". Think of all of the education and training companies and all of the schools, and teachers. That's about 1% of GDP.
        http://www.economicpopulist.org/files/u1/gdpindustry12.jpg [economicpopulist.org]

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:40PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:40PM (#195007)

          Education != Educational Services

          Please go back to 4th grade and retake basic reading comprehension

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by zafiro17 on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:16PM

    by zafiro17 (234) on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:16PM (#195041) Homepage

    So, go to a conference, come back with a virus. Not the first time THAT's happened. I'd like to know how they got it though: off a toilet seat? Tongue kissing the hostess? Sucking the USB sticks of strangers?

    --
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