Stuxnet

Stuxnet --

Stuxnet is an Computer Worm discovered in the year of June 2010, that is initially spreading via windows machines and targeting the Siemens Systems. it is the first discovered malware that spies on and subverts industrial systems, and the first to include a programmable logic controller (PLC) rootkit.

The worm will spread very fastly and it is mainly target to the Siemens SCADA(supervisory control and data acquisition) Systems that are configured to control and monitor specific industrial processes. It mainly infects the PLC in the SCADA Systems.

when security Expers find to try the sources of the Stuxnet they found that the some sources are in belaraus and the spreading of worm is mostly in Iran i.e..more than 60 % and it mainly infects the iran nuclear program, which uses embargoed Siemens equipment procured secretly, has been damaged by Stuxnet.

The affected countries

Iran - 58.8%
India - 8 %
USA - 1%

The worm itself now appears to have included two major components. One was designed to send Iran’s nuclear centrifuges spinning wildly out of control. Another seems right out of the movies: The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators, like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing themselves apart

About two years ago, centrifuges at Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz started failing at a suspicious rate. Iran eventually admitted that computer code created problems for their centrifuges, but downplayed any lasting damage. Computer security experts said it was the handiwork of the Stuxnet code, and that it destroyed more than 1,000 centrifuges. Many believe the U.S., in conjunction with Israel, sabotaged the system.

Ralph Langner, a well-respected expert on industrial systems security, published an analysis of the worm, which targets Siemens software systems, and suggested that it may have been used to sabotage Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor. A Siemens expert, Langner simulated a Siemens industrial network and then analyzed the worm's attack.

See Stuxnet: a Good Idea

on 1 september 2011 security experts found an virus related to the family of stuxnet and they call it as 'DUQU' . it is designed to capture information like keystrokes and system information.

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Mobile Malware Is on the Rise, but Is It a Real Threat?

Smartphones and tablets may be the hottest tickets in electronics today, but with that marquee status comes a dark side. Mobile viruses on the rise, and 2010 saw a huge increase in malware on mobile devices, up 46 percent from 2009, says a new threat report from security software maker McAfee.

The increase in mobile malware isn't unexpected, as smartphones have become more popular in the last year, with smartphones recently passing PCs in sales for the first time ever. Adam Wosotowsky, an engineer at McAfee, says Symbian is the most at-risk mobile platform, though Google Android devices and jailbroken iPhones are popular targets, too.

"I wouldn't call it unexpected," he says. "We've seen mobile malware growing exponentially year-over-year for a while. It's much more of a big deal now that smartphones are basically becoming little computers."

Besides being greater in number, mobile malware is getting more sophisticated, Wosotowsky says. Viruses that infect cell phones typically force the phone to do things like send texts or make calls to specific numbers and at specific times so the malware creator profits. Now that phones are capable of so much more, the viruses that infect them are following suit.

"There are a lot more ways for the criminal enterprise to make money," he says. "You have the ability to infect the phones and actually build some kind of botnet infrastructure. We have seen indications of ways to start to establish command and control [on phones]."

Seeing "indications" and seeing a virus are two different things, however. Ondrej Vlcek, CTO of Avast, a security software company that gives away its product, says the mobile malware threat, while a problem, isn't anywhere near as threatening as malware on PCs.

"It's still relatively small compared to the traditional platforms," Vlcek says. "Also, the payloads are usually less invasive—sort of like Windows malware ten, fifteen years ago."

Vlcek is on board with the McAfee report's conclusions about the vulnerabilities with Adobe products, however. The report says malware developers "heavily" exploited weaknesses in Flash and PDF applications. Flash videos are especially ripe targets, Wosotowsky says, since the application runs code on both the client and server sides.

"Flash is extremely popular and everybody's using it. That makes it a big target," he says. "I'm sure Adobe is going to re-architect some of the security that's associated with it."

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