The San Mateo, California based security firm AlienVault created a very interesting infographic that they called “The eternal life of malware.” because the malware gets recycled and redeployed.
To start with, Stuxnet resurfaced in a cybercriminal campaign dubbed “Operations Olympic Games” in June 2012 after having first been reported in 2010.
Another family of malware called "Shamoon' which was used for the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil industry was nothing but a modified version of the existing Wiper malware.
The Duqu malware was designed on the same platform as Stuxnet, and to top it all, the Gauss malware has so much in common with the Flame malware that analysts believe it was coded by the same software engineers.
In most cases we will never know who really built these malware families because state actors are behind it, but you can can count on the fact that this code will be re-used and recycled until all antivirus products recognize them on sight and it's end-of-life. However, this may take a long time.
Here is the infographic:
Infographic by AlienVault
To start with, Stuxnet resurfaced in a cybercriminal campaign dubbed “Operations Olympic Games” in June 2012 after having first been reported in 2010.
Another family of malware called "Shamoon' which was used for the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil industry was nothing but a modified version of the existing Wiper malware.
The Duqu malware was designed on the same platform as Stuxnet, and to top it all, the Gauss malware has so much in common with the Flame malware that analysts believe it was coded by the same software engineers.
In most cases we will never know who really built these malware families because state actors are behind it, but you can can count on the fact that this code will be re-used and recycled until all antivirus products recognize them on sight and it's end-of-life. However, this may take a long time.
Here is the infographic:
