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FBI warns US businesses of 'destructive' malware
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102213995 ^ | 12/01/2014

Posted on 12/01/2014 3:46:00 PM PST by Dacula

The FBI warned U.S. businesses that hackers have used malicious software to launch destructive attacks in the United States, following a devastating cyberattack last week at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The five-page, confidential "flash" warning issued to businesses late on Monday provided some technical details about the malicious software that was used in the attack, though it did not name the victim.

An FBI spokesman declined comment when asked if the software had been used against the California-based unit of Sony Corp.

The Sony attack resulted in five films being leaked online, including the updated version of "Annie." In the attack on the studio's corporate systems Nov. 24, an image of a skeleton appeared on company computers with a message that said, "Hacked by #GOP," with the group behind it calling itself "Guardians of Peace."

The message threatened to release "secrets and top secrets" of the company. Currently being investigated is a connection between upcoming Sony movie "The Interview," and North Korea.

The FBI occasionally issues "flash" warnings to provide businesses with details about emerging cyber threats to help them defend against new types of attacks. It does not name the victims of those attacks in those reports.

The report said that the malware overrides data on hard drives of computers which can make them inoperable and shut down networks.

It is extremely difficult and costly, if not impossible, to recover hard drives that have been attacked with the malware, according to the report, which was distributed to security professionals at U.S. companies.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fbi; hackers; malware
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Tech Ping worthy?
1 posted on 12/01/2014 3:46:00 PM PST by Dacula
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To: ShadowAce

Tech Ping worthy?


2 posted on 12/01/2014 3:46:19 PM PST by Dacula
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To: Dacula; Swordmaker

Wonder if it can affect Macs?

Will ping swordmaker - he will know.


3 posted on 12/01/2014 3:58:55 PM PST by jacquej ("You cannot have a conservative government with a liberal culture." (Mark Steyn))
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To: Dacula

Malware coming out of Ferguson or the White Hut?


4 posted on 12/01/2014 4:04:16 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 ((VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!))
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To: Dacula
It is extremely difficult and costly, if not impossible, to recover hard drives that have been attacked with the malware...

Unless you back up regularly and can afford to revert to an image prior to infection by keeping your private data off your hard drive. Then you revert and tell the SOBs to sit on it and spin.

5 posted on 12/01/2014 4:06:40 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Red_Devil 232

N Korea


6 posted on 12/01/2014 4:07:56 PM PST by Dacula
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To: Dacula

Why issue a “confidential” warning?


7 posted on 12/01/2014 4:08:51 PM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: Dacula

Using Flash is one way to get malware.


8 posted on 12/01/2014 4:29:00 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Dacula

They ought to name it the ‘Rodman’ virus.


9 posted on 12/01/2014 4:50:04 PM PST by CincyRichieRich (In Times of Universal Deceit, Telling the Truth Becomes a Revolutionary Act.)
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10 posted on 12/01/2014 4:52:44 PM PST by RedMDer (I don't listen to Liars but when I do I know it's Barack Obama.)
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To: Billthedrill
Unless you back up regularly and can afford to revert to an image prior to infection by keeping your private data off your hard drive.

Professionals backup to grandfather drives. Meaning, backups on different hard drives. Let's say your current daily backup saves to another drive and both are infected. If you regularly backup the backup drive weekly to a third drive, then that third drive is unaffected. At most you lose a week's worth of new data. It's always a good idea to periodically swap backup drives and store one away as a backup to the backup (store in a safe). Especially if your daily backup is near your work drive; accidents do happen that can take out both drives. Even better, store a backup drive off site in case of fire or theft.

11 posted on 12/01/2014 4:57:17 PM PST by roadcat
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To: Dacula

Are copies of the malware being uploaded immediately to IRS computers?


12 posted on 12/01/2014 4:57:29 PM PST by Truth29
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To: Billthedrill

That is why I still prefer to still have a tape backup somewhere. Doesn’t have to be every night anymore, but at least once a month or once a week and take it off-site. So many people are getting burned with using external drives as backups that get infected too along with the network drives.


13 posted on 12/01/2014 5:19:40 PM PST by ClayinVA ("Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it")
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To: jacquej; Dacula
Wonder if it can affect Macs?

Will ping swordmaker - he will know.

No. Sony uses Microsoft Windows computers. Mac and Windows suffer from different types of malware. There are only about 50 trojans that will affect a Mac, and all of those are recognized by OS X which will block them from being downloaded, installed, or run, compared to millions of malware for the Windows platform.

14 posted on 12/01/2014 6:03:28 PM PST by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
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To: roadcat

Just got nasty thing at the office computer.
Blank black screen with just movable cursor at the Win7 boot. Backups, restore don’t work. Wonder if that’s it.
Took me three days to get rid of it and restore sanity.


15 posted on 12/01/2014 6:58:37 PM PST by Leo Carpathian (FReeeeepeesssssed)
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To: Dacula

Slow Lerner and the IRS want to purchase the code


16 posted on 12/01/2014 7:10:36 PM PST by Steven Tyler
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To: Leo Carpathian
Took me three days to get rid of it and restore sanity.

Sorry to hear about that. I run a Windows image in a partition on my Mac. If Windows crashes, I simply replace it with a fresh copy of a backed up image and restore data to that from backups. Painless. Best protection is to start with a fresh install, and restore data. Other guys periodically do fresh Windows installs, rather than repair a trashed OS.

17 posted on 12/01/2014 7:40:46 PM PST by roadcat
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To: rdb3; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; JosephW; Only1choice____Freedom; amigatec; Still Thinking; ...

18 posted on 12/02/2014 3:38:33 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: jacquej
Wonder if it can affect Macs?

Security through obfuscation is not a strategy, and working in a mixed environment as an IT architect, I can tell you that Macs are just as much a target for malicious content as Windows machines. Macs, like Linux machines, require several layers of behavioral checks to ensure the user really, really wants to install something. That doesn't make them immune to attacks, it just reduces their risk footprint.

19 posted on 12/02/2014 4:24:21 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: ShadowAce; Swordmaker
I got nothing from the article about the attack itself or how to guard against it. A little help please...

What was the nature of the attack? Trojan? Modified/hacked real application? Web-based drive-by? USB drive infection?

What was its introduction vector - network, human, etc.?

Is it Windows-specific really -- i.e. an executable that only runs on Windows? Or is it only that it's presently tuned to Windows and could be readily tuned for Linux or Mac?

Was the damage at Sony done to the hard drives (hardware) or the drive format structure (filesystem) or the data stored in the filesystem (files, databases)?

Without more info, this is just a nebulous scary "Look out!" of little value....

20 posted on 12/02/2014 5:45:46 AM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is...sounding pretty good about now.)
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