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PowerPoint Attack May Have Been Espionage
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2006-07-21
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Somebody's been causing Microsoft a headache with a zero-day attack against PowerPoint. That's not terribly remarkable - Microsoft products are often targeted by cybercriminals. But researchers at Symantec believe this attack could be an example of industrial espionage.
Last week we reported on the zero-day attack. Dubbed Trojan.Riler.F by Symantec, it "is a back door Trojan horse that installs itself as a layered service provider (LSP), and allows a remote attacker to have unauthorized access to the compromised computer." The security company designated its "damage level" as "medium," but classified it as "Risk Level 1: Very Low."
But Microsoft may be getting nervous due to the comments of Alfred Huger, the senior director of engineering at Symantec. According to an article on eWeek, Huger thought "the sophisticated nature of the attacks suggest it is the work or well-organized criminals associated with industrial espionage."
He also noted some similarities between previous attacks and this latest bit of malware. "It's difficult to say if all the Office attacks we've seen this year are related to each other but they are using very similar techniques that are very sophisticated," Huger said, as reported by Ryan Naraine.
Huger also something to say that may concern corporations other than Microsoft. "Once this type of attack is out, it's very unusual for it to be limited to just one company. I think it's safe to assume that it's ongoing, especially since there is no patch for this vulnerability."
As for individual users, people need only hold on until August 8 - that's when Microsoft plans to patch the PowerPoint vulnerability.
Zero-day attack
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About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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