US and UK Masterminds of Regin Malware

THE INTERCEPT PUBLISHED a latest report on 24th November, 2014 stating that Symantec, a security firm, recently identified a complex malware known as Regin which is suspected to be the technology behind the sophisticated cyber attacks on the European Union and a Belgian telecommunications company conducted by U.S. and British intelligence agencies.

Belgacom became aware of Regin when their electronic mail servers and internal computers got infected by it. THE INTERCEPT announced on their website that the organization (Belgacom) was the main target of British spy agency for conducting a top secret surveillance campaign.

The malware covers itself as genuine Microsoft software and robs data from the computer and it was spotted on some of the computer systems of the European Union by the National Security Agency (NSA) of US.

Last year Edward Snowden, a NSA Whistleblower, leaked some documents about the operation which exposed the information regarding hacking against the European Union and Belgacom but the name of the malware was not mentioned in those documents.

The existence of Regin malware was first reported on Sunday, 23rd November, 2014 which is among the most sophisticated discovery of researchers till date. Symantec compared Regin with Stuxnet, a malware program sponsored by state and developed by U.S. and Israel to sabotage computers at an Iranian nuclear facility.

Some started to blame China and Russia soon but industry experts quickly discounted these.

The European Parliament, European Commission and the European Council of member state heads were among the main clients of Belgacom.

It still remains unknown how member countries of the EU, 28 including UK, will respond to one of its own member countries launching a successful hacking campaign against its own executive body.

Over the years, top leaders have suspected US as one of the greatest threats to information protection and privacy guidelines of the region but they must have had closer look at home.

The Intercept requested for a comment to which GCHQ has responded with a boilerplate. The NSA on the other hand does not seem to praise this story with a non-denial and instead opting for something much harsher: "We will not comment on the speculation of The Intercept."

» SPAMfighter News - 12/3/2014