FSB or (Russia’s Federal Security Service) has lately reported a discovery of cyber-spying virus. It states that networks on huge scales in more than 19 state bodies and defense suppliers have been found contaminated.
TASS news agency broke this news almost a month ago, claiming that Russian defense and some government companies have been infected with malware attacks. The news agency goes a step further with a bold attitude and blames the U.S. for this mess, saying that this could well be an effort that may help in influencing the presidential elections.
Aimed Attacks
TASS reported that the malware found in different networks of states was a professionally planned and target virus which was created and spread on a large scale in Russia. An in depth analysis of the programming style, usage parameters, file names along with additional factors was carried out and it was learned that the virus was a continuation of a series of attacks that have been imposed on Russia in the past where the core aim of the attackers is spying the cyber world of Russia.
New viruses are made to achieve specific targets differently based on the nature or networks and machines that are on the hit list. TASS further reports that these unique viruses are spread with the help of email messages that contains attachments that are malicious and defected.
Engaging the network traffic, storing screenshots and compromising them are the core features that this virus have. Furthermore, it can activate web cams; turn on microphones in a computer, record sounds and capture videos plus to put a cherry on top, it also can record the keystrokes. This shows how lethal this virus could be.
Who is and can be a target, is being looked into by the FSB who is working on a close collaboration with the concerned authorities and various ministries to find out the aimed results and the intentions of such attacks.
Giving a Shut up call!
An important fact not to be overlooked is the timings of this issue. Both Russia and the U.S. at the moment are involved in this touchy cyber-debate, i.e. blaming one another.
Tough task has been assigned to the Russian intelligence services over the past few months so as to figure out the core machines associated with the Democratic National Committee, campaign for presidential elections by Hillary Clinton along with other state and political organization and hit them with lethal cyber-attacks, a thought from the U.S. cyber security officials.
The Russians on the other hand rejected this blame vehemently. The situation is beyond the complex levels and could get worse if this war of blame game is not settled with immediate effect.
Both the nations seems to be giving shut up calls to each other, however the outcomes are not very much fruitful as it appears that they are both going further deep in this mess of blaming one another.
Wi-Wi-Wi-Wikileaks
Yup! No need to introduce it, a probe was launched by the FBI into wiki-leaks’ e-publication of data that was stolen from Democratic National Committee, which resulted in a negative impact on the Democratic Party and its election campaign.
Russian was blamed by the CrowdStrike and was linked with the Democratic National Committee; it was declared by CrowdStrike that ‘Fancy Bear’ and ‘Cozy Bear’ was the names used by the Russian hackers and attackers.
Martin Libicki and additional higher management scientist at Rand is of the view that cyber spying is becoming a normal practice among nations.
In an interview, Martin assumed that the core aim of what the Russians did was the release of information they accesses and may not the breaking in into the Democratic National Committee, might well have something to do with the impact on U.S. presidential elections.
He further added that there are growing concerns in the United States that Russia may apply its strengths to sway the voting systems that work electronically and this may affect the results of the U.S presidential election results and process.
Even if Russian Federation has been attacked with cyber-attacks, it does not mean that the U.S. shall only be blamed for it, and if it is so that the U.S. only is being blamed then that would not inevitably denote that the data obtained would be utilized for anything further than.
Although cyber-attacks may have targeted the Russian Federation that would not necessarily mean the U.S. was behind them. Even if it were, that would not necessarily mean that the information obtained would be used for anything more than astuteness reasons.
What about the rest of the World?
This battle of allegations between the two nations may end God knows when however, it has some serious influence when it comes to improve the level of awareness among other nations. Government bodies and concerned authorities along with big organizations are now on their toes, because they want to ensure that they are secure. A rise in demands for firewall security systems, secure socket layers and above all the application of strong code when it comes to web development services has been noted already. It seems that they have realized the significance of adopting a proactive approach and avoiding time wasting activities by blaming others and hunting for culprits.
