http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-hackers-use-zer...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/10/14/National-...
A Russian hacking group probably working for the government has been exploiting a previously unknown flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system to spy on NATO, the Ukrainian government, a U.S. university researcher and other national security targets, according to a new report.
<snip/>
ISight dubbed the recently detected hacking group SandWorm because of references embedded in its code to the science-fiction novel “Dune.” There were various mentions in Russian to the fictional desert planet of Arrakis, for instance.
The firm began monitoring the hackers’ activity in late 2013 and discovered the vulnerability — known as a “zero-day” — in August, Ward said. The flaw is present in every Windows operating system from Vista to 8.1, he said, except Windows XP.
<snip/>
ISight technical analyst Drew Robinson said the firm attributed the campaign to Russia partly because of the targets and partly because the command server, located in Germany, had not been properly secured. The server was inadvertently exposing Russian-language computer files that had been uploaded by the hackers.
<snip/>
A Microsoft spokeswoman said the firm’s patch will be released in security bulletin MS14-060.
