Conficker capabilities

Martyr

Was reading through an article 'Conficker's capabilities worry researchers'

I'm wondering if theres a sinister link with AV companies and increased risk from malware, given the recent global downturn and companies
reluctant to spend money on computer security

There has always been a symbiotic link between virus writers and AV companies.

AV companies need malware writers to stay in business

But why is it then insane to think that AV companies today would be creating them? To stimulate their own business, of course!

Bare in mind that conficker's "capabilities" were used atleast 10 years ago and in all that time passed, AV companies couldn't solve the problem?

Even some of the current researchers are having difficulty analysing polymorphic code which has been around since the early 90's ... probably because "nobody uses assembly anymore"

Of course, if you did create a full-proof solution, then simply many companies would go out of business..and that would be worse for the economy.

just seems to me that these virus "problems" can be solved and the people responsible for the task don't, so they can keep creaming money off a business until they have nothing left to give.

Capt'n Midnight

should be on the conspiracy forums tbh

Apple changed their OS to BSD and antivirus for them and other *nix users is mostly a curtsey to windows users. How have the AV companies fared in the non-windows world ?
if windows/office/third party windows apps were as secure as other OS's many of those products would not be as needed as much as they are.

maybe microsoft are sponsoring the malware writers :rolleyes:

In theory 64bit windows systems should be more virus resistant. In theory the writing is on the wall for AV companies. But windows has more holes than swiss cheese. I say this because every two months or so without fail there is yet another vulnerability where someone can take complete control of your machine. Don't get me wrong it's much more secure than in the past but still has an awful long way to go to reach the standard of the rest of the industry.


My pet hate is antivirus vendors that charge extra for malware protection. :mad:


But Malware is now big business and doesn't need to be subsidised by AV companies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GhostNet
I've heard reports of routers from china shipped with compromised firmware, people leaving dodgy cisco firmware on the internet to be downloaded, so there are other threats out there that the bad guys will try to use.

Martyr

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

should be on the conspiracy forums tbh

Lets just say I know people working in the industry and you don't. :P

Apple changed their OS to BSD and antivirus for them and other *nix users is mostly a curtsey to windows users. How have the AV companies fared in the non-windows world ?
if windows/office/third party windows apps were as secure as other OS's many of those products would not be as needed as much as they are.

maybe microsoft are sponsoring the malware writers

I don't believe M$ are supporting malware writers, not at all, never.
It wouldn't support their business model.

M$ did employ virus writers however.. I wont say who Captain, you'd probably think that belongs in the conspiracy forum too

Disassemblies were done for a reason, viruses were written for a reason.
They created a a business.

It doesn't matter what you tell the end user, because most of them are too stupid to realise whats going on anyway.

You create the problem, then provide a solution - simple model.

In theory 64bit windows systems should be more virus resistant. In theory the writing is on the wall for AV companies. But windows has more holes than swiss cheese. I say this because every two months or so without fail there is yet another vulnerability where someone can take complete control of your machine. Don't get me wrong it's much more secure than in the past but still has an awful long way to go to reach the standard of the rest of the industry.

KM, 64-bit windows is no more secure than 32-bit windows.

But Malware is now big business and doesn't need to be subsidised by AV companies

You can't have an AV business without virus writers.

democrates

Re. the thread title, the April 1st update enhanced confickers capacity to propagate. It's in a position to do a ddos by virtue of it's footprint but the ultimate motive of its controller(s) is anyones guess.
My biggest concern is that such things provide a pretext to those who want to free us from freedom.

mick.fr

Yeah I don't really believe the conspiracy behind that, it is like saying criminals and cops work together so cops can have a job. Maybe a bit extreme example, but you got the idea.

Now there has been collaboration in the past we would never thought it would be possible, but it was

Now with good money any employee or ex-employee of any company could be switching his hat over :-) More realistic explanation of the quick morphing capabilities to me of this threat.

Also @ Captain Midnight, I think you had Microsoft Singularity in mind rather than a Windows 64 bits version being less susceptible to attacks and viruses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_(operating_system)

Capt'n Midnight

Slightly OT and with thin foil hand AND face mask on

Does anyone think that there might be government subsidy of black hat hackers, especially in Asia ?

Cyberwarfare exists. Is there a low level war running in the background, similar to the old cold war tactics of overflights, nothing overt just decreasing competitive advantage by a gradual draining of resources ?

mick.fr

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Slightly OT and with thin foil hand AND face mask on

Does anyone think that there might be government subsidy of black hat hackers, especially in Asia ?

Cyberwarfare exists. Is there a low level war running in the background, similar to the old cold war tactics of overflights, nothing overt just decreasing competitive advantage by a gradual draining of resources ?

Create your own topic or you will be banned for a day!!

Kidding

It is for sure. Now who knows to witch extend that's another story...

Don't forget there is also pretty smart criminal groups that do benefit from stealing information from governement's computers.
So what is happening is probably a mix of governement intelligence and cyber criminals, who probably resell the information to different governements and private entities anyway.

But as you probably know, the US started the Cyber war many years ago already with the Echelon network. That was unilateral war as they were gathering and analysing information. So in a way this is the just return of things today.

The incredible economical success of the US is probably partially due to some good intelligence gathered at some stage.
This has been proven in the past with some jet fighters deals for example etc.

democrates

Yes it would be interesting to know where conficker fits in the busy world of cyber-espionage. Military strategists have long linked economic success with "national security":

Sun Tzu wrote:

When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.
Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.

Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

For 2000 years the Chinese kept the method for production of silk a secret and made far more from the silk trade than they ever did from obsidian.

Intelligence agencies stealing secrets on behalf of their own corporations may well be standard practice today, and rather than this being an outlandish theory I think that the alternative theory that it doesn't go on is niaive given what has been reported. It's plausible that conficker is part of it but my guess is it's more likely a criminal op as its a more obvious fit for their MO.

In any event we have to up our game in Ireland regarding security as we become more of a knowledge economy, identity theft is bad enough but where we depend on information which gives a competitive edge the stakes can be much higher. Luckily quantum cryptography solutions are getting cheaper.