Cyber criminals have launched a focussed attack on the aerospace and defence industry. They are using spear phishing or targeted attacks using fake mails called Backdoor.Barkiofork.
They have targeted at least 12 different organisations including aviation, air traffic control, and Government and Defence contractors in India and abroad, Internet security solutions firm Symantec has said.
Anand Naik, Managing Director (Sales, India and SAARC) of Symantec, said hackers are “becoming hyper-focussed and are targeting individuals who are key assets to companies in a more designed fashion”.
Once entered through e-mail clicks, the Backdoor.Barikiofork virus can quickly enumerate the disk drives and steal system information. It can also devour information by stealthily downloading files. The deadly virus can execute updates to the virus, making itself more powerful.
Unlike in general phishing attacks, where hackers spread the virus without any targets in mind, spear attacks identify individuals in key roles in an organisation.
“The content of all the e-mails were identical. The attackers used a report published in 2012 regarding the outlook of the aerospace and defence industries as the lure,” Anand Naik said.
“The e-mails were also crafted to look as though they were being forwarded by internal employees or by individuals from within the industries identified,” he said.
A Symantec Intelligence report said the Defence industry is one of the targets, with an average of 7.3 attacks per day globally.