This week in security history - Duqu

  • 5 September 2014
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Duqu was discovered on September 1st, 2011 by researchers at the Budapest University of Technology.  It is thought to be related to the Stuxnet worm, however rather than targetting industrial control software directly, Duqu offers a more general remote access to infected systems.
 
One of the interesting facts about Duqu is that Kaspersky Labs turned to the Internet to crowdsource solving the problem of what language a key part of the virus was written in.  With more than 200 comments and dozens of emails, the mystery was solved.  It turned out to be a custom C extension called "OO C", compiled in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.  This particular combination points to the virus being written by some experienced, old-school programmers.
 
Few infections have been found in the wild, partially because Duqu is programmed to remove itself after 36 days.  Most of those infections were focused on Iran.  Some of the servers that Duqu communicates with are still operational, scattered across many countries.  A newer version of the virus reappared 4 months after the initial discovery, and the authors of the virus are still unknown. 

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The following is a update on security history

(10 years in tech: The crazy cellphone ideas of 2004)

 
By Martyn Williams  Posted on 9/12/2014
 
A year is a long time in smartphone technology today, so remember -- if you can -- the changes that have taken place over the last 10.
In 2004, Apple had only just started working on development of its iPhone and no one outside the company knew about it, Samsung was focused on the South Korean market, and the hottest thing in wireless was the success of the I-mode mobile Internet service in Japan.
As I watched Apple's launch of its new iPhones and smartwatch this week, I was reminded of a trip I took exactly a decade ago to the ITU's Telecom Asia expo in Busan, South Korea. As Tokyo correspondent for IDG, I was used to seeing advanced phones in Japan but some of the handsets in South Korea looked positively futuristic. Recalling those phones, it's amazing to think how technology has changed in the last decade, and how smartphones have changed our lives.
 


 
ComputerWorld/ full article here/ http://www.computerworld.com/article/2605886/10-years-in-tech-the-crazy-cellphone-ideas-of-2004.html
 

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