Virus of the NSA on hard drives (February, 2015)

2015: Kaspersky Lab detected the built-in virus on hard drives of large suppliers

In the middle of February, 2015 it became known that at the disposal of the American authorities there is a special virus which can monitor actions of PC users, being in the hidden sections of hard drives. Espionage software was detected by anti-virus company "Kaspersky Lab".

According to her experts, the innovation virus capable to reprogram a factory firmware of computer winchesters is created really. Thanks to it malefactors can control operation of the notebook or a desktop even after formatting of the drive or reinstallation of the operating system. It is interesting that the program can be hidden in hard drives of the famous producers, such as Toshiba, Western Digital, Seagate and IBM.

Kaspersky Lab found an espionage virus with roots from intelligence agencies of the USA

According to data of Kaspersky Lab, the new virus infected computers in 30 countries of the world, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen, Algeria and Russia. The devices which are most of all infected with such program it is noticed in Iran.

The malware found specialists for cyber espionage is focused first of all for an attack to the government and Defense Ministries, the telecommunication, financial and energy companies and also the organizations connected with nuclear researches, media and religion.

Kaspersky Lab did not call the country which can be involved in creation of a virus and its use. However the Reuters edition, referring on the former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the USA, reports that this department really developed technology of embedding of the spy software in hard drives.^[1]

The anti-virus company calls the hacker organization which used acceptances of reprogramming of a factory firmware of HDD, Equation Group. It interacted with other cybergroups, in particular with organizers of the sensational    campaigns Stuxnet and Flame.

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