E-security firms recently detected a new virus named as the Stars virus in cyber space that can cause damage to our country’s critical cyber infrastructure.
E-security firms recently detected a new virus named as the Stars virus in cyber space that can cause damage to our country’s critical cyber infrastructure.
The Stars Virus is suspected to be a variant of the Stuxnet worm that had infected Iran’s nuclear capabilities. The worm affected India’s power grid and one of the air traffic controls too. This forced the government to take urgent measures to guard against such attacks in the future.
With the help of experts from private and government organisations, a cyber security police draft was made. It was submitted to the government recently for further comments form various agencies and ministries to decide on the further course of action.
According to eScan lab reports the Stars virus is capable of damaging government systems. But there is no clear information on where it came from and what it was intending to do, apart from the fact it was trying to disguise itself as legitimate government files. Iran’s cyber defence has been on high alert after the discovery of this sophisticated and technologically advanced worm believed to have been created specifically with the aim of causing damage to government systems. The attack was detected in Iran during Easter. It is also suspected that the attack was launched during this period.
Iran’s civil defence authorities had announced the discovery of a new virus named the ‘Stars Virus’. “The initial claims and reports from Iran on this virus till now is that it is a malware that is used to commit espionage and is compliant with the targeted systems and resembles executable government files. On receiving the news, we increased our monitoring of the viruses and are waiting more information on the same.
We have been recently witnessing a spike in the spread of infection using a new vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat PDF files that has not yet been patched. This scenario combined with reports available on the worm till now makes us think that the Stars Virus uses root-kit techniques and spreads using the vulnerability in files such as PDF via email” said Govind Ramamurthy, MD and CEO, e Scan labs.
Dr Gulshan Rai, Director, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), India said “Our office keeps a regular checks on such attacks and vulnerabilities. Our office is closely keeping a check on this new virus and alerts have been issued.”
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