Cybersecurity company Symantec has released information about a highly sophisticated malware - a new digital "weapon" in essence - that it discovered and is called Regin.
It is a spyware virus, which, according to the company, displays a degree of technical capability that we have rarely seen to date and has been used in espionage against high-profile targets, such as governments, infrastructure managers, businesses, researchers and important private targets.
This is an advanced form of spyware that in some ways is reminiscent of the "famous" Stuxnet, one of the most dangerous malicious programs ever created and developed by the US and Israel in 2010, targeting Iran.
The Regin worm appears to have been in use since 2008 against a range of international targets and has hit, among others, telecommunications companies in Russia, Saudi Arabia, but also Mexico, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
The complexity of the threat, as well as the significant investments it appears to have required for its development, make it highly likely that it is, in fact, a tool of national espionage. It is believed that its development has taken months or even years and has probably been designed and controlled by some intelligence agency in the West, with its creators of course having made great efforts to cover its tracks. In some parts, it is considered to be even more advanced than the Stuxnet worm.
The Regin worm is a multi-stage attack, with each stage, except the first, being encrypted and none revealing the overall attack (the full picture only appears when all five stages have been completed).
The attacks are believed to have taken place between 2008 and 2011 (Regin 1.0), when it disappeared only to reappear in 2013 (Regin 2.0) with some important differences: the new version is 64-bit, and may have missed a stage.
Many aspects of the Regin worm remain unexplored, despite Symantec's investigations, and, despite speculation, it is currently considered difficult to draw any firm conclusions about its origin or purpose.
Source: digitallife.gr
