New Malware Used for Surveillance in 10 Countries

The malware also targeted the telecommunications and hospitality industries

Technology sure is a blessing but unnecessary advancements in the field have also led to some major problems which simply cannot be avoided as we get more inclined towards depending on it. Good and useful things also have a dark side sometimes and it only depends on the way you plan to make use of them. With our high dependence on technology, we are also losing the gates that protected our privacy. This brings us to the ongoing case of the “highly complex” surveillance tool which has been targeting companies and other victims in at least 10 countries including Russia and Mexico.

The Symantec Corp. researchers have taken a look into this but the nation which /4/have developed this tool remains unidentified. This tool is basically a malware which is widely being recognized as ‘Regin’ and according to a report today from Symantec this malware has been used in intelligence gathering since at least 2008. Being the biggest maker of security software, we highly doubt that Symantec has left any loopholes onto this one.

Majority of those infected include either individuals or smaller companies but Symantec says that some telecommunications and hospitality industries have also been affected. Apart from research institutes, some governments have also fallen prey to this tool.

Mountain View, a California-based company said on its blog today “Regin is a complex piece of malware whose structure displays a degree of technical competence rarely seen. Its capabilities and the level of resources behind Regin indicate that it is one of the main cyberespionage tools used by a nation state.”

This malware features anti-forensics capabilities and features a custom-built encrypted virtual file system which is why the software is highly inconspicuous as stated in the report. The most frequently targeted countries were Russia and Saudi Arabia as reported by Symantec and others to follow included Mexico, Ireland, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Belgium, Austria and Pakistan.

source: symantec