Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Wed Feb 18 02:46:31 CST 2015
Hi All: There is a new level of spy ware (malware) most likely from the NSA. This software is burnt right into a hard drives' firmware and as of yet, can not be removed. It seems that hard drive producers like Samsung, Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Toshiba, and Hitachi have this malware installed on them. Also USB manufactures seem to have a similar piece of code wired into them. The discovery of this malware is thanks to Kaspersky Labs; the world's leading virus protection organization. http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/16/8048243/nsa-hard-drive-firmware-virus-stuxnet Here is a further explanation of the associated viruses, their level distribution and a description of how they actually work. To say the least it is brilliant and the associated software have completely infested all Windows operation systems and have even been found in Apples iOS. The below article is a very good read for those who enjoy digging into the details http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/how-omnipotent-hackers-tied-to-the-nsa-hid-for-14-years-and-were-found-at-last ...and a PDF file from Kaspersky Labs... https://securelist.com/files/2015/02/Equation_group_questions_and_answers.pdf It should be noted that as far as Kaspersky is concerned, only Windows and Apple products are infected. It has not been found in Linux because of its transparent nature...a good reason to mistrust proprietary operating systems and software. Any company and country who is in the scope of NSA would be well advised avoid the range of contaminated operating systems. Jim