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Cyberespionage For Everyone

Mephistophocles writes "A chilling article by Darkreading's Kelly Jackson Higgins describes how the growing accessibility of hacking tools like RATs (Remote Access Trojans) have made cyber-espionage possible for more than just those financially backed by large nation-states, and speculates on what the implications of this may be: 'Researchers at Norman Security today revealed that they recently analyzed malware used in phishing emails targeting Israeli and Palestinian targets and found that attackers used malware based on the widely available Xtreme RAT crimeware kit. The attacks, which first hit Palestinian targets, this year began going after Israeli targets, including Israeli law enforcement agencies and embassies around the world. Norman says the same attacker is behind the attacks because the attacks use the same command-and-control (C&C) infrastructure, as well as the same phony digital certificates. This attack campaign just scratches the surface of the breadth and spread of these types of attacks around the world as more players have been turning to cyberspying. "We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg," says Einar Oftedal, deputy CTO at Norman.'"

7 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. "Growing Accessibility" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Did everyone already forget freely available rats like Sub7, BO and NetBus that used to be around in the late 90ies?

  2. So, tell me about these new "script kiddies"... by DavidClarkeHR · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, rather than celebrate the possibility of having transparency for all (it's not government spying when everyone is doing it to the government in return) ... Norman Security is reporting on the emergence of script kiddies?

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    - Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
  3. Re:Amazing. by blackicye · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Your message intrigues me. Tell me more of your obvious distrust of Norman Security.

    My first experience with this out of nowhere Norton Clone was as preinstalled software on a brand new Acer laptop that I had to uninstall because it was interfering with fresh software installs.

  4. Really that prolific? by nomad-9 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the article:"Turns out cyberespionage malware and activity is far more prolific than imagined.".

    Really? Who "imagined" that malware activity was not that "prolific"? Did they just defrost those "researchers"?. Seems like these folks are the only ones surprised by the existence of script-kiddies, hackers in the Middle-East, the extent of Chinese state-sponsored cyber-espionage, and the growing hacker communities in Brasil and other emerging nations. Globalization => globalization of hacking. Who would have imagined that....

    And the article links to another one ("Scope Of APTs More Widespread Than Thought" ) that goes on:
    "There's a lot of cyberespionage happening internationally. This is not going to go away," Kaspersky's Schouwenberg says.

    Gee, thanks for the eye-opening, completely obvious, self-evident statement, Shouwie, Here's a question: do you experts stay constantly tuned with what's happening in the world, or do you just wake up one day, burst out of the bubble where you were busy "imagining" things, and discover reality?

  5. "... growing accessibility of... RATs..." by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You mean like Sub7 and Netbus, which were readily available in the late 90s?

    Dude. This was news before Slashdot existed.

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    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  6. Re:Amazing. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well your first mistake was not wiping any new PC completely before use. Microsoft have acknowledged that malware can be installed on new PCs at the factory, so using it at all without wiping is russian roulette with your personal information.

    Download a DBAN ISO and keep it somewhere for when you buy a new PC. Wipe it, reinstall Windows, install drivers (which you should download from the vendor's website from a different PC. Don't put a memory stick in to the new PC before wiping). It's more work, but your experience with the new PC will be better for it.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  7. Norman != Norton by rgbrenner · · Score: 4, Informative

    Norman was founded in 1984 and is based in Norway:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_(company)

    Norton was started by Peter Norton in 1990 and is now owned by Symantec:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Internet_Security

    So, as you can see.. Your experience with Norton Clone has nothing to do with Norman.