New virus suggests massive cyber attack coming

Cyber security professionals are warning that an ultra-sophisticated computer virus related to the legendary Stuxnet worm has been detected in Europe.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The computer virus appears to be closely related to the powerful Stuxnet worm which infiltrated Iran's nuclear program and dealt nuclear researchers a crippling blow. In fact, the new virus is so similar to Stuxnet, that many virus detection programs have falsely identified it as the original Stuxnet worm.

The new virus is called "Duqu" and contains nearly identical code to Stuxnet. The virus has been detected on computer systems in Europe. However, unlike the original Stuxnet worm, Duqu is not designed to do any actual harm. Rather, Duqu is gathering information. Experts believe that information will likely be used in a future attack.

Stuxnet made headlines last year when it was declared responsible for sabotaging Iran's nuclear enrichment process. Although Iranian officials took careful measures to isolate their equipment from the Internet, the tailor-made worm still found its way into their laboratories.

The original Stuxnet worm spread around the world and eventually wound up on flash drives belonging to Iranian nuclear program researchers. When those researchers plugged those flash drives into laboratory computers, the worm infected those systems and altered the speed at which the centrifuges were running. By altering the speed of the enrichment process, the virus was able to render the program's uranium unusable for weapons.

While no entity took credit for the worm, it is largely believed that something so sophisticated could have only come from a centralized government. The United States and Israel are the two most likely sources.

The emergence of Duqu means that a sophisticated cyber attack could be imminent. This new Stuxnet-like virus collects data such as keystrokes and passwords, critical information that the authors can use to hack into sensitive systems.

There is very little that professionals can do to stop the virus at this time. Security officials, and Internet experts can only raise an alarm and advise those entities with sensitive systems to take all necessary precautions to secure their data.

Ordinary computer users are unlikely to be directly affected by the new virus. Eventually, virus scanning software will be able to detect and remove it like any other. However, for the time, the hackers have the initiative on this one.

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