Η Revelation by the FBI and the NSA that the Russians have succeeded in creating malware targeting Linux systems is the latest twist in the ongoing cyber security battle.
The two services revealed that Russian hackers used a completely new malware for Linux systems, called Drovorub. The malware allowed them to steal files and take control of devices.
The drovorub it is far from the first malware to target Linux, and certainly not the first Russian malware to target Linux devices. Last year Microsoft warned about malware it was making attacks on Internet of Things (IoT) devices and in 2018 for a VPN malware.
This particular attack shows us that what many claim is malware is a problem only for Windows does not seem to be true, as it was a decade ago.
The reality is that any computer system that provides important work or hosts important data will be targeted. Linux is increasingly the foundation of many different business systems and huge parts of the cloud. Although there are relatively few threats targeting Linux, it will not remain so.
None of the above is to dispute the quality of Linux's built-in security, which many argue is stronger because of natureς του ανοιχτού κώδικα που χρησιμοποιεί. Πράγματι, σε αυτήν την περίπτωση το κακόβουλο λογισμικό των Ρώσων, λειτουργούσε μόνο σε σχετικά παλιές εκδόσεις του Linux kernel.
But Drovorub is a reminder that hackers and malware writers are increasingly willing to target all systems if they think there is a profit, another advantage.
The most dangerous assumption that many organizations make is that they are not going to be a target. This may be because they think their data is not important or because it is very well protected.
Both of these assumptions are wrong. Even if your business is small, you may have customers or suppliers who are interested in hackers, who are usually looking for systems like yours to attack. If you think you are well protected, so do many other billion dollar companies.
The latest revelation shows that all systems and all devices can be targeted, even the ones we least expect. Innovations such as IoT and the cloud simply expand the system that organizations need to maintain. And hackers will not stick to the old-fashioned ideas about which software and which systems are vulnerable to attack.
