'Nitro' hackers use stock malware to steal chemical, defense secrets

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9221335/_Nitro_hackers_use_stock_malware_to_steal_chemical_defense_secrets

By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld
October 31, 2011

Attackers used an off-the-shelf Trojan horse to sniff out secrets from 
nearly 50 companies, many of them in the chemical and defense 
industries, Symantec researchers said today.

The attack campaign -- which Symantec tagged as "Nitro" -- started no 
later than last July and continued until mid-September, targeting an 
unknown number of companies and infecting at least 48 firms with the 
"Poison Ivy" remote-access Trojan (RAT).

Poison Ivy, which was created by a Chinese hacker, is widely available 
on the Internet, including from a dedicated website.

The malware has been implicated in numerous attacks, including the March 
campaign that hacked the network of RSA Security and swiped information 
about that company's SecurID authentication token technology.

[...]


_____________________________________________________
Subscribe to InfoSec News - www.infosecnews.org
http://www.infosecnews.org/mailman/listinfo/isn