MALWARES

MALWARES

Context:

On March 3, Maharashtra Power Minister Nitin Raut announced that a State Cyber Cell probe had found 14 Trojan horses in the servers of the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company.

The announcement came in the wake of a report from Recorded Future, a U.S.-based cyber security firm, stating that a group linked to the Chinese government, which it called ‘Red Echo’, had targeted 10 vital nodes in India’s power distribution system and two seaports.

Concept:

Malware is the shortened form of malicious software.

Malware is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software including Ransom wares, Computer Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, Spyware, Adware, Scareware etc.

This is any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. The term refers to software that is deployed with malicious intent.

Malware can be deployed even remotely, and tracking the source of malware is hard. It can take the form of executable code, scripts, active content, and other software.

These malicious programs can perform a variety of functions, including stealing, encrypting or deleting sensitive data, altering or hijacking core computing functions and monitoring users’ computer activity without their permission.

This combination has enabled commercial malware providers to supply sophisticated black markets for both malware and the information that it collects.

Shadow pad:

Shadow Pad is a backdoor Trojan malware, which means it opens a secret path from its target system to its command and control servers. Information can be extracted or more malicious code delivered via this path.

Shadow Pad is built to target supply-chain infrastructure in sectors like transportation, tele communication, energy and more.

It was first identified in 2017, when it was found hidden in a legitimate software produced by a company named Net Sarang. Trojanised softwares, or softwares that have dangers hidden in them, like the eponymous Trojan horse from Greek mythology, are the primary mode of delivery for Shadow Pad.