Top-tier espionage malware 'Regin' has been spying on targets since 2008

A sophisticated piece of malware known as “Regin” has been spying on government organizations, infrastructure operators, businesses, researchers and private individuals since at least 2008. The backdoor-type Trojan is said to display a degree of technical competence rarely seen and would have required a significant investment of time and resources to create according to Symantec.

The design of the malware makes it suitable for long-term surveillance operations against a range of international targets and can even be customized with a range of capabilities depending on the target. The customization uses a modular approach similar to what has been seen in other sophisticated malware including Flamer and Weevil (The Mask).

Top-tier espionage malware 'Regin' has been spying on targets since 2008

www.symantec.com...




Thought this article(articles) may be of some interest to my fellow members. This “Regin” seems to have been doing the rounds for sometime now. One has to wonder as to which alphabet agency is responsible for this particularly sophisticated backdoor type Trojan. As you can see the malware comes in stages and is rather hard to detect.

Privacy is long dead on the net....(if it ever existed in the first place) the US military brought you the internet...did you think it was a FREE GIFT?

a reply to: stirling

Apparently everything has its price, even freedom, or so it seems.

Just saying...its sooo convenient to have the world using the system to which you undoubtedly have the backdoor keys.....
The use of Trojans is so widespread by government agencies and private corporations that I sincerely doubt there is any uninfected computer on the planet....

this was posted already, yesterday.

a reply to: stirling

This is why I think it was a surveillance device from day one.

Its probably not any individual government group who did it by a collection as with the 5 eyes theres a lot of very good people all with different skills and get them together and job done, they'd also be able to manipulate the AV companies etc so it would last as long as possible

originally posted by: Yeahkeepwatchingme
a reply to: stirling

This is why I think it was a surveillance device from day one.

You may be right. I worked for a company who maintained their own copy of the TCP/IP stack for their products (a large block of software going all the way from the device drivers to NIC's (network cards + connectors) to the actual sockets library used for applications development. Many of the source code modules, even senior engineers and architects were just not allowed to touch or even to try and understand, especially routing and encryption. Fixing memory leaks and faulty inter-process synchronisation that was OK.

Any new ideas to TCP/IP were/are introduced through RFC's (Request for Comments) and only universities like Berkeley and Stanford, who did all the research in conjunction with the NSA.

Then time and time again, we find some fundamental obvious bug that should have been fixed ages ago, still lurking there.

originally posted by: stirling
Privacy is long dead on the net....(if it ever existed in the first place) the US military brought you the internet...did you think it was a FREE GIFT?

Well, I was never under any illusions about the nature of the people who own us. Though I guess it is pretty easy to forget sometimes that your friendly computer and it's associated software is really basically a doorway into your mind. More than any other piece of technology ever invented, the internet basically is the telescreen. If for no other reason than a network is always going to involve other people in some way or another.

Anyway, I can remember sitting down at a computer for the first time in my life and wondering how much of what I was doing was being monitored somehow.

it might even go back to y2k lots of other bugs did

a reply to: stirling

Considering the amount of garbage that most people unwillingly or unknowingly download to there systems on a daily basis I have to agree. Short of having an air-gap rig that's essentially useless for all intents and purposes regarding communication I highly doubt there is an uninfected computer or network on the planet without some form of malware present.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: stirling

Apparently everything has its price, even freedom, or so it seems.

Freedom has always had a price, that price has always been blood, sweat and tears.

That will NEVER change.

a reply to: OneManArmy

Cant argue with that considering the supporting evidence. However the basic human paradigm has to change if we are ever to be anything other than predatory animals. We have such potential for evil yet also for good given the correct circumstances. Simple fact is there are far to many of us for this planet to accommodate. So we ether devise a means to remove ourselves to greener pastures or keep on killing one another until there are no people left to fight over the dwindling resources that remain. I know what scenario i would choose. And it's certainly not the Orwellian nightmare we currently experience should we happen to gaze out the window.

originally posted by: andy06shake

A sophisticated piece of malware known as “Regin” has been spying on government organizations, infrastructure operators, businesses, researchers and private individuals since at least 2008.

So what's the point? Is anyone more enlightened because of the information supposedly gathered? Who gets the juicy info? Has anything been exposed? Nope. Spying on government organizations??? Yah okay. It's taken years to get backup tapes of the IRS emails.

I'm having a hard time believing this story.

originally posted by: StoutBroux
So what's the point? Is anyone more enlightened because of the information supposedly gathered? Who gets the juicy info? Has anything been exposed? Nope. Spying on government organizations??? Yah okay. It's taken years to get backup tapes of the IRS emails.

I'm having a hard time believing this story.

Military and industrial espionage. To say nothing of the ability to spy on governments and find out what they're doing which is an important part of diplomacy.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Well they do say that forewarned is forearmed, there is some enlightenment in that at least. As to who profits from the information, if Symantec know they certainly are not saying.

a reply to: andy06shake

It's unlikely that Symantec knows. Virus definitions are shared openly between anti virus vendors because it allows for everyone to have an effective product rather than each company have only a partially effective one. If any antivirus maker knew it would result in everyone knowing more than likely.

The more likely scenario in my opinion is that whoever made this virus has detailed knowledge of the coding behind the anti virus software and they wrote it to use loopholes in their code so that it would be less likely to be noticed.

a reply to: andy06shake

What concerns me is so many people going out
and buying video cameras to watch their homes,
etc... And that they may be setting themselves up
for strangers to be able to access those cameras
and spy on people if they can be accessed via The
Internet. I have refused to buy such cameras
because of this, but the masses seem completely
clueless.

Rebel 5

a reply to: rebelv

Buddy given the security issues we face in today's society and the unwillingness and or lack of aptitude Police show regarding crimes like petty theft, vandalism, burglary, and even assault i have to say im considering purchasing an outside IP cam for my residence.

www.lightinthebox.com...

A couple of the above to be more precise. There dirt cheap and will offer endless peace of mind to both myself and family members.

originally posted by: rebelv
a reply to: andy06shake

What concerns me is so many people going out
and buying video cameras to watch their homes,
etc... And that they may be setting themselves up
for strangers to be able to access those cameras
and spy on people if they can be accessed via The
Internet. I have refused to buy such cameras
because of this, but the masses seem completely
clueless.

Rebel 5

Everything is a tradeoff and that goes double for technology. A network camera can provide real time remote surveillance while storing the data offsite, but that same network access can allow someone to hijack it and spy on you. It all comes down to where you place the camera. For example, I would be perfectly comfortable with some perimeter cameras on my home being on a network and them potentially being hijacked but the camera on my laptop gets covered with tape.