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'Old School' Hackers Attack European Governments Using 'MiniDuke' Malware

puddingebola writes "The Guardian reports that hackers have been targeting officials from over 20 European governments with a new piece of malware called 'MiniDuke.' 'The cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, which discovered MiniDuke, said the attackers had servers based in Panama and Turkey – but an examination of the code revealed no further clues about its origin (PDF). Goverments targeted include those of Ireland, Romania, Portugal, Belgium and the Czech Republic. The malware also compromised the computers of a prominent research foundation in Hungary, two thinktanks, and an unnamed healthcare provider in the US.' Eugene Kaspersky says it's an unusual piece of malware because it's reminiscent of attacks from two decades ago. 'I remember this style of malicious programming from the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. I wonder if these types of malware writers, who have been in hibernation for more than a decade, have suddenly awoken and joined the sophisticated group of threat actors active in the cyber world.' The computers were corrupted through an Adobe PDF attachment to an email."

6 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. PDF attachment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone else weary to click the attached PDF?

    1. Re:PDF attachment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm really starting to grow weary of PDF.

      What does 'PDF' stand for anyways? 'Pedo file'?

      PDF: Please Don't Fuckup.

  2. Aging hackers by Grayhand · · Score: 4, Funny

    From Hell's retirement home I stab at thee!" Why do I get this picture of some hackers with walkers and false teeth striking out with a couple of old 8088s from their group home?

    1. Re:Aging hackers by trentfoley · · Score: 1, Funny

      8080A, Z-80, or 6502. When you've been 8-bit hacked, you stay hacked!

      You and your new-fangled 16 bit processors. At least use an 8086, or even better, a moto 68k!

      And, don't knock false teeth. Where else do you think I have my portable wifi hotspot installed?

  3. Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The computers were corrupted through an Adobe PDF attachment to an email." Links to a PDF describing the attack.

  4. open a pdf on ... by v1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    mac: "The pdf was corrupted and could not be opened. Try downloading again."

    mac: "The pdf was corrupted and could not be opened, open in raw text view?"

    windows: "This document requires age verification to view. Please verify your internet connection and enter a valid credit card number to proceed."

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.