The Japanese defense ministry has been closely working with an IT company called Fujitsu, to develop a defensive computer virus. This particular virus will be able to trace the path of any cyber attack and then attack at the source. The most important thing to know about this virus is that while going for the source computer, the virus will also shut down every other system in the path. These two features, which are shutting down of the attacker’s machine on its own and being able to percolate to the source machine through the internet have a lot of significance.
How the Virus Works
What the virus is capable of is actually shutting down every system that is connected to the internet on the planet. All one needs to do is point the virus at the right target and use the exploit that was considered to be the ‘zero day’. This is quite similar to a doomsday situation. You can also be rest assured that every other country with technological power to spare would be working on a similar weapon as a defensive tactic, and if you think about the possible implications, it can be quite scary.
A Defensive Measure
The concept behind the system is that when a system detects an attack on the network, the virus is launched as a defensive measure. The virus immediately starts to trace the origin of the attack. While it does so, every machine that it encounters is turned off till it reaches the source. The main issue in this entire process is that the virus will come across many machines and PCs on its path that would be meant for personal or corporate use. Users will not be aware that these machines are being used as a part of a cyber attack. Also, it is possible that these computers in the path might be located in a different country that raises the possibility of international issues.
Using the above mentioned virus, it is possible to make an internet protocol appear like a threat and then trigger the virus. XMPP, a popular internet protocol, can easily be targeted. As it is used in Facebook chat applications, it could spread to millions of PCs in a very short span of time. XML training courses, XML as used in XMPP, and other forms of technical courses, are only a small step in avoiding such situations in the future.
Governments Using the Virus
Government organizations throw thousands and sometimes millions of dollars on such research. With that much money, it is very possible to build highly sophisticated computer worms. Such incidents, considering the breaches of US organizations at the hands of the Chinese, have happened before. Even Iran’s uranium enrichment plants were breached by attackers, supposedly from the United States. Internet giants have not been safe from such attacks as only recently a lot of Gmail accounts were hacked. Google was not able to show any proof that a government entity was behind the attack, but it is quite clear that most governments would not have monetary problems, like small-time hackers do, if they wanted to create such a virus.
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