ESET Reports Iran Hit with State-Sponsored Online Spying Scheme During 2013

Bratislava, Slovakia-based ESET has just published a study about seemingly state-backed online spying software that was employed during 2013 for attacking PC-networks within Iran and possibly in some other countries.

The malicious software called Dino, understandably, is the creation of the alleged Animal Farm syndicate that developed the Trojans Casper, Babar and Bunny too while according to rumor, the syndicate is one extension France's intelligence service.

The security company describes Dino as an advanced backdoor, which executes its tasks by utilizing various modules. The chief objective of the Trojan is potentially to steal data-files from contaminated computers.

According to Joan Calvet, Researcher at ESET, his analysis of Animal Farm over a number of months indicates that the Dino moniker possibly has been taken from "The Flintstones" a cartoon TV serial where a pet dinosaur is named likewise. Securityweek.com published this, June 30, 2015.

ESET states it hasn't yet found the first infection medium of Dino, however, believes the malware gets planted via another malware.

Dino, after contaminating a PC, may get instructed for mining details of the contaminated system, implementing Windows batch instructions, hunting particular files, and uploading and downloading content from the malware's CnC (command-and-control) server. Dino's controllers may as well fix instructions for execution at one particular point of time, as also they can clear the system off the threat while leaving hardly any indication of its presence.

Additionally according to Calvet, from the number of codes that Dino and other familiar malware from Animal Farm share, it's nearly certain that Dino is an Animal Farm creation.

Meanwhile, the Edward Snowden-leaked slides from CSE (Communication Security Establishment) of Canada in 2014 that also first supplied info about Animal Farm's Trojans suggest that the Canadians too moderately trusted that all the malware programs together with Dino were makings of France's intelligence service.

And though Dino together with the accompanying Trojans don't directly provide clues of online spying by any particular intelligence organization of France, they're however, suggestive of the French government trying to do similarly like the NSA of USA as well as the "Five Eyes" security agencies of Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

» SPAMfighter News - 7/10/2015