Previous Exploits Can Awake At Any Moment
Because of the advanced and sophisticated nature of a hack or an exploit, hackers love to take existing work and re-engineer it to create even more damage and destruction over the original design. The malware that was created to sniff around and steal secrets and information of an industrial nature was created in a time span of over 12 months ago. Targeted to attack organization control systems and power plants, utilities, and factories, Symantec researchers discovered a previous version that came about in June of 2009. From there it was redesigned in a more intelligent format in the early months of 2010. The earlier incarnation of malware, named Stuxnet, was designed to have the same effect, but does not contain the later version's ability to escape detection by antivirus means or have the ability to insert itself within Windows computing systems. It is said the latest version is the most advanced attack that has been targeted against an installation to date. After its creation new enhancements were added during the malware the ability to propagate itself within USB flash drives and related devices without any user intervention necessary. The originators of the malware were also able to access encryption keys and use digital signatures preventing antivirus solutions from detecting the actions of the malware. One thought or belief is that an individual stole the encryption keys by gaining access to the computer systems of the manufacturers of the processor chip companies.
Experts in the security field comment that these types of attacks and hacks have been happening for years but haven't had media attention until Google revealed it was under attack by malware named Aurora. In both instances, Stuxnet and Aurora became zero day vulnerabilities in Microsoft solutions. A zero day vulnerability or exploitation is a piece of malware that attacks a security hole or exploit the same day the vulnerability is discovered, therefore there is no time lapse between the discovery and the primary attack. Where Aurora was designed to attack Internet Explorer version 6, Stuxnet was designed to attack all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 and forward.
Microsoft recently released a security fix to address the situation just as a newer attack was discovered. The newer malware worm, named Sality, was able to infect a larger group of files, replicate itself to media devices, and download other pieces of additional malware. Brazil is one country that has witnessed this latest attack, but other countries have begun to experience it as well, including Pakistan, India, Iran, and Indonesia. Some believe those behind the attacks are a nationstate rather than a particular individual. Siemens indicated a total of four of their customers have had infection, which have been geared toward engineering.
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