InfoSec: Red October cyber-espionage attack list includes 5 African countries

In alarming news, Kaspersky's revelation of their discovery of the Red October (Rocra) cyber-espionage operation lists at least 5 African countries (South Africa, Uganda, Congo, Tanzania and Kenya) that have been victims/targets of the spy network's activities. The spy network, which largely focuses on international diplomatic service agencies, also targets governments and scientific research organizations. Red October allegedly rivals the sophistication of last year's Flame malware but is described a "more devious" as attacks can be handcrafted for specific targets. Part 1 of the full report is here: http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792262/Red_October_Diplomatic_Cyber... The bad news is that the network is still active and can't seem to be taken down - is actively collecting data and transmitting to it's "owners" Anyway, just a heads up to the respective African countries on this list - be careful, be very careful.... Best regards, Brian

With many non-open data glaring at the public through government systems, and with the banking fraud that Kenya has experienced in the last year, we should be very worried... Attacks like Rocra, Stuxnet and Flame show how vulnerable Microsoft users are, especially if Windows is used by state agents. With Rocra, the attackers managed to stay in the game for over 5 years and evade detection of most antivirus products while continuing to exfiltrate what must be hundreds of Terabytes by now -- ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva For Business Development Transworld Computer Channels Cel: 0722402248 twitter.com/lordmwesh www.transworldAfrica.com | Fluent in computing kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
participants (2)
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Brian Munyao Longwe
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Kivuva