Fresh Malicious Program Attacks Iran

According to one officer of the Iran government, a fresh kind of malware called Stars is currently wreaking havoc in the country following the Stuxnet worm that broke out previously. V3.co.uk published this on April 25, 2011.

Making a confirmation, the officer indicated that during 2010-11, Stars had been the second malicious program, which criminals had created for targeting Iran institutions following the Stuxnet virus' assault on the nuclear plants of the country during 2010.

Says Gholam-Reza Jalali a cyber-security officer of Iran, a few features have been spotted in Stars like it's made suitable to work with the attacked computer as also that the destruction during the first phase is very minor. Moreover, there's the possibility of mistaking the malware as the government's executable files, Jalali explains. Cnet published this on April 25, 2011.

And while the cyber-security officer didn't disclose which system was being targeted, he stated that investigation was going on. According to him, the Stars worm was being explored in the laboratory; however, specific conclusions hadn't been attained. ITP.net published this on April 25, 2011.

Moreover, in a face-to-face chat, Jalali reportedly blamed Israel and the U.S about violating international law via the use of Stuxnet on the nuclear fuel producing plants of Iran. State security experts that Stuxnet believably is a malicious program that the government designed, which may've immobilized 25% of the Iranian centrifuges that Iran operates for generating nuclear fuel, although Iran denies the contention.

Furthermore according to Jalali, it required considering that just by tackling Stuxnet it didn't imply that the worm had been wholly removed as computer worms followed a certain life-cycle, while they could carry on their operations in alternate modes. V3.co.uk published this on April 25, 2011.

Nevertheless, security companies don't have complete knowledge of the malicious program as Iranian authorities haven't provided any sample to security investigators, while there's hardly any significant implication from its name as malware-discoverers assign names only at random.

Says Kaspersky, a checksum like MD5, say, will fast assist the security firm in confirming whether the virus in question is really one which had already appeared earlier.

Related article: Fark.com Files Suit against Suspected Hacker from Fox13

» SPAMfighter News - 5/2/2011