Stuxnet

[Jedi2155]

Even if it is written by Fox, the idea of a virus like that would make any security professional call for mommy.

 

Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran?s nuclear enrichment program.

 

The target was seemingly impenetrable; for security reasons, it lay several stories underground and was not connected to the World Wide Web. And that meant Stuxnet had to act as sort of a computer cruise missile: As it made its passage through a set of unconnected computers, it had to grow and adapt to security measures and other changes until it reached one that could bring it into the nuclear facility.

 

When it ultimately found its target, it would have to secretly manipulate it until it was so compromised it ceased normal functions.

 

And finally, after the job was done, the worm would have to destroy itself without leaving a trace

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/.../#ixzz16pMOhDDf

[kuhla]

I remember hearing a lot about stuxnet when it was initially found and I want to give it lots of credit for how awesome it was but I just cannot do it with a straight face when you cite foxnews as your source. Come on man. Fox? Really? I have a dislike for that network beyond logical reasons.

[Jedi2155]

Did you read it? It doesn't even sound that bias! Quite humorous and amazing really.

[kuhla]

Did you read it? It doesn't even sound that bias! Quite humorous and amazing really.

I skimmed over it, and unless I missed something, I'm pretty sure most of that information was already being discussed months ago. It just seems like Fox decided to sum it all up in one article long after the fact.

[Jedi2155]

In response to the infection, Iran has assembled a team to combat it. With more than 30,000 IP addresses affected in Iran, an official has said that the infection is fast spreading in Iran and the problem has been compounded by the ability of Stuxnet to mutate. Iran has set up its own systems to clean up infections and has advised against using the Siemens SCADA antivirus since it is suspected that the antivirus is actually embedded with codes which update Stuxnet instead of eradicating it.

Ingenious.

[kuhla]

Continuing on the theme of ridiculously evil ingenious viruses.....

 

source - http://www.dailytech.com/TDL4+Botnet+is+Cl...rticle22045.htm

 

....

 

So far, the TDL-4 botnet is very effective with an estimated 4.5 million Windows computers currently infected. Stewart said, "The 4.5 million is not surprising at all. It [TDL-4] might not have as high an infection rate as other botnets, but its longevity means that as long as they can keep infecting computers and the discovery rate is small, they'll keep growing it."

 

Another key to the longevity of the TDL-4 malware is the fact that it finds and disables other malware on the computer. This is done because the less likely the user is to know of any infection on their computer, the less likely they are to investigate further and potentially discover the TDL-4 malware on the machine.

....

Also from the comments to that article:

 

By geddarkstorm on 6/30/2011 3:44:26 PM , Rating: 4

It's pretty cool to me how this is so closely emulating what actual biological viruses do to avoid the immunesystem. Taking out all other infections in a cell to give time to replicate without the IS being tipped off is standard practice, with the few exceptions being incredibly interesting to biological research.

 

If any piece of software out there will ever develop true intelligence, the first will be a virus.

Sounds cool at least. I tried some quick google searches but could not find anything that actually said something along the lines of a bio virus "taking out" other infections.