India Is Investigating Duqu Malware

Of late sophisticated Malware have entered into the cyber crime market place. Whether it is state sponsored or private profiting, Malware is becoming a good choice for all. The evolution of Malware is also happening in an innovative, constant and quick manner.

From Stuxnet to the latest Malware Duqu the trend in this regard is absolutely clear. If nations are not well prepared on the front of cyber security, critical infrastructures would be vulnerable. While this is not a situation that requires a paranoid reaction yet this is at the least a wake up call for ensuring strong and robust cyber security.

In order to analyse the Duqu Malware, Indian officials from department of information technology (DIT) have recently seized computer equipment from a data center in Mumbai. They took several hard drives and other components from a server that was communicating with computers infected with Duqu.

While detailed investigation is still going on yet preliminary examination suggests that Duqu was developed by sophisticated cyber criminals to help lay the groundwork for attacks on critical infrastructure such as power plants, oil refineries and pipelines, etc. It is suspected to be another incidence of state sponsored cyber attack tactics to test future cyber capabilities.

Duqu, so named because it creates files with "DQ" in the prefix, was designed to steal secrets from the computers it infects. The target includes design documents from makers of highly sophisticated valves, motors, pipes and switches.