Top Internet security companies agree and are warning that at least one virus writer is specifically targeting government computer systems, both in the UK and the United States, and elsewhere.
Said Dave Cowings, a Senior Business Intelligence Manager for security company Symantec, “This appears to be a very specific virus writer targeting government agencies and, not as (other articles) suggested, targeting only U.K. government agencies.”
The targeted viruses may go undetected, in large part because they are deployed in a low key, low level manner.
Added Cowings, “These are definitely virus attacks that attempt to sneak under the radar and are specifically targeted towards government agencies.”
Combining social engineering with a determination supported by a surprising amount of background research, the viruses may be as targeted as being sent only to one particular person in a target company, with the email and virus very specifically designed to optimize the probability of getting the victim to open and unleash the virus. These viruses don’t just open up back doors and replicate and send themselves to everyone in the victim’s address book, like your garden variety virus.
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They steal documents.
Mark Sunner, CTO for security firm MessageLabs explained that it would be “very, very naive for any company to ignore these attacks,” Sunner said. “The lack of instances makes this more insidious, because it’s likely that that no one is detecting the attacks. People may only notice it months later–by then, it is too late.”
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