Posted on 02/17/2010 7:18:39 AM PST by Gomez
Prague/Brno, Feb 15 (CTK) - Czech security experts have uncovered a global network of devices attacked by computer viruses within which it was possible to wiretap and gain access to sensitive data, Jan Vykopal, head of the security project of Masaryk University, told CTK yesterday.
Modems were among the attacked devices as they are only poorly protected. The viruses were able to deflect the communication of Internet users to servers where they could be wiretapped, Vykopal said.
Vykopal's colleagues along with experts from the Brno Military Academy and the Defence Ministry have uncovered the dangerous network.
"The assailants have denoted the network of the subjugated installations as Chuck Norris," Defence Ministry spokeswoman Lucie Kubovicova said.
Experts said the network's main threats included the gaining of various sensitive data such as access details for bank accounts, e-mail boxes, passwords to various services, social networks and users' other personal data.
Besides, a number of computers and other installations connected through the Internet can be used for attacks on well secured servers as well, Vykopal said.
"We do not know whether the network we uncovered can also be used for this as we do not know the number of the devices that are included in it," Vykopal said.
The network of the attacked apparatuses covered the whole Europe and South America and reached as far as China, he added.
The central server that controlled the hackers' operation was in Italy, Vykopal said.
"After we announced the existence of the network to Internet providers in the world, the main server was disconnected. However, its copies have appeared in other places in the world," Vykopal said.
These copies, too, should now be eliminated, Vykopal said.
The experts uncovered the dangerous network during the work on a project of the Defence Ministry called CYBER. It is to secure its information network against computer attacks.
Experts from Masaryk University made an installation for a device for connection to the Internet they deliberately let be attacked by a virus of the assailants in order to track them down, Vykopal said.
Smart work, bait them with an tasty opening and let them get caught by their own greed.
Interesting. I recall reading a book called the Cuckoo’s Egg which described one of the first tracking of Spy hacking of computers which used modems to gain access.
That was a great book.
Are you aware of this?
That’s only because in the time frame that the events of “Cuckoo’s Egg” took place, modems were pretty much all that existed.
Modems are still used extensively for “out-of-band” communication, such as when a high-speed link to a remote datacenter fails; the telephone network is often more robust than broadband, even in the business world. Also, modems are usually hooked directly to servers, bypassing firewalls and other security controls.
Hackers who ignore 50,000,000 Macs because the target is too small are infecting... modems?
Well... we know the answer to that... it was much easier for them to attack the modems and "get results" than it was to attack the Apple Macintosh machines and get results... LOL...
There are still FReepers on modems, and I suspect a large number of users outside the most modern countries in the world are on them as well.
Broadband connections use modems as well...most any connection I can think of does. DSL modems, cable modems,....
True, and that would explain the references to banking info etc, though DSL modems and such tend not to be quite as easily compromised as POTS modems.
Thanks for the ping.
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