Cyberwarfare attacks pose a growing and little understood threat. Internet users think nothing about surfing the internet superhighway through virtual battle zones with only their mouse for company. Most people never forget to secure their doors at night but the same individuals will leave their computer ports open when they are out surfing the net. The internet respects no borders and can take the user into dangerous territories infested with malware. No one is safe from these internet malware threats and these virtual terrorists use multiple methods. They piggyback on our existing infrastructure and bandwidth to invade our privacy and security in our own homes and offices without our knowledge.
Hundreds of cyberwarfare attacks on military systems and government infrastructures are reported daily. A botnet is a network of infected computers, called zombies, which can be used for sending out spam, mounting denial of service attacks, stealing personal information, cyber terrorism, etc. Computer botnets are facilitated by rootkit infections.
Cyberwarfare is an enormous threat around the world, as an enemy can cripple our economy using malware such as rootkits which were virtually undetectable until now. Power stations, highways, offices, hospitals, etc. are all vulnerable to a cyberwarfare attack. It is estimated that over 50 million computers worldwide are infected with botnets.
Hacker tools are becoming cheaper and easier to obtain and rootkits allow hackers to bypass normal security controls and remain undetectable. Rootkits are used to infect zombies to create botnets. A rootkit will capture personal information, while creating a back-door into the system to alter files, processes, or tools to escape detection. As rootkits become more powerful, common, and difficult to detect they can be widely used in combination with social malware techniques to attack a large number of computer systems in a relatively short period of time. Rootkits not only download updates to themselves, but also virus payloads that they install inside their encrypted folders to avoid detection.
According to the Associated Press, Spanish police arrested three ringleaders behind a Mariposa botnet that infected 12.7 million PCs, stealing credit card and banking information. Infected computers were at more than half the Fortune 1,000 companies and 40 major banks. The Mariposa botnet was one of the world's largest, as it spread into more than 200 countries and appears to be more sophisticated than the botnet that was used to hack Google Inc.
Malware writers keep updating rootkits and their malicious attacking methods, as anti malware tools become able to detect them. The three most dangerous rootkits that were recently updated are Rustock, 4DW4R3, and TDL3. Safe rootkit removal is a very complex process, and only security companies that have the best cutting edge technology are able to accomplish this.
X-Wire Technology's internet security division Tizer Secure™ has released two powerful free tools to help individuals protect themselves against these hard to remove threats. Newly released Tizer™ Rootkit Razor is able to detect newly updated rootkits Rusktock and 4DW4R3 as well as all other malicious rootkits using multiple methodologies. This tool will scan files, registry keys, DLLs, processes, kernel API modifications, SSDT modifications, kernel object modifications, hidden ports, hidden drivers/services, etc. to help detect and safely remove rootkits. It is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (32-bit).
Tizer™ TDL3 Razor will allow you to easily scan for and remove the particular TDL3 rootkit that infects Windows XP machines with intel processors and hard disks that use atapi.sys or iaStor.sys drivers. The TDL3 rootkit is actually a botnet and TDL3 Razor is currently the only tool that is able to remove the rootkit from both of these drivers. It is compatible with Windows XP machines. These two tools are released free for personal use and are available for download at www.TizerSecure.com. With offices in Chapel Hill, NC and Mumbai, India, X-Wire Technology provides IT outsourcing to clients around the world. |
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