Just now an attack was discovered targeting servers and computer networks and it has actually been going on for years. The computer virus ”Rocra” secretly gathers only coded data and deliverers them to it’s maker.
Like the submarine from Tom Clancy’s ‘”The Hunt for Red October”, the computer virus ”Rocra’‘ seamlessly worked it’s way through systems. It could nest on a server and stay there to gather information. Attacks where targeted on computers and networks in businesses. It looked for very important information such as geopolitical information – very sensitive because it mainly attacked military and government computers. The most affected countries were in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but there are endangered facilities in West Europe and in North America too.
Experts from the Russian security firm ”Kaspersky” (Kaspersky Lab) discovered ”Rocra” in October last year and they assume that it is present since 2007. From where the attack has come from, they couldn’t say. It is possible that the attack comes from Russia, said the firms spokesman Magnus Kalkul for the German press agency DPA. ”That doesn’t mean that Russian government facilities gave the order for espionage, because there are Russian programmers in many countries” says Kalkul.
A new generation of cybernetic weapons
For the insertion of ”Rocra” the spies skillfully exploited the weaknesses of the program ”Windows Office” that millions use. According to ”Kaspersky”, the attackers sent infected mail to the victims. The ones who opened the documents using Microsoft ”Word” or ”Excel”, released a ”trojan” virus in their computer. It could stay opened in the background unnoticed and open certain programs and search for sensitive data. It especially looked for coded data. Such data has been used by the NATO and European Union.
A similar virus has attacked facilities in the Middle East. The virus ”Flame”, similar to ”Rocra”, collected information unnoticed, primarily in Iran and Israel. It looked like a ”trojan”, but it didn’t just wait in the background and collect data, it could also independently start some programs, record conversations and keyboard inputs, and it could also photograph the content that was on the display. Experts from ”Kaspersky” said that ”Flame” was a new generation of cybernetic weapons.
When they discover you – self-destruct!
It has been suspected that some governments are behind the attacks, but experts for fighting computer viruses didn’t have the opportunity to examine the infected computers thoroughly. Namely, soon after it’s discovery, ”Flame got the order to self-destruct.
It is not known who directed the ”Rocra” virus on a journey around the world. ”Kaspersky” speculates that there is a group of hackers of unknown nationality behind the attacks. This time no government is suspected, but some governments might be interested in the ”spoils”. The information that has been collected by ”Rocra‘ have great significance and it could be secretly sold to the highest bidder, assume experts from ”Kaspersky”.
When we talk about Kaspersky, their newest product KIS 2013 is one of only four antivirus software that have astonished analysts from “MRG Effitas“, an expert organization for testing IT safety solutions. During that test KIS was simply amazing, we will make an effort to bring you more detail about that test in some of our next articles.
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Article by Bob Douglas
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