Astonishing. The apparent creators of Stuxnet have learned how to alter the firmware in hard drives to hide spying software in hidden sectors.
The US security services have developed software that has enabled it to spy on home computers almost anywhere in the world.Russian researchers at Kaspersky Lab have claimed that the software gave those behind it, thought to be the US National Security Agency, the power to listen in on the majority of the world’s computers.
It could be installed on practically any of the world’s most common hard drives and spy on the computer while going undetected.
It was used to break in to government and other important institutions in 30 countries across the world, they claim.
Update 10:20 PM: Read Kaspersky’s blog post on the Equation Group and it’s Equation Group Q&A [PDF].