The Holy Russia To The Soviet Russia..(Part 1)

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-The term 'Malware' is associated with Cyber world...It is the short form of 'Malicious Software'. The term for lay-man can be rightly defined as any software knowingly designed to cause damage to a computer, server or computer network.

They are planted in the target as the codes and scripts which in common languages are known as Computer Virus, Worms, Trojan horses, Ransomware, Spyware, Adware, Scareware,  etc. These malicious programs can perform a variety of functions, including stealing, encrypting or deleting sensitive data, altering or hijacking core computing functions and monitoring users' computer activity without their permission.

 To protect any such attack users purchase the software provided by companies called Antivirus software, Firewalls etc.

-A couple of months back Maharashtra Cybercrime department has reported the malware “Gravity RAT”. The ‘RAT’ in the name stands for Remote Access Trojan, which is a program capable of being controlled remotely and thus difficult to trace. It was first detected by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team(CERT-In) in 2017.

-Introduction to CERT-In…

1. It is the India's nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents as and when they occur. It has been operational since January 2004.
2. In the IT Amendment Act 2008, it has been designated to serve following functions:-

• Collection, analysis and propagation of information and awareness on cyber incidents.
• Forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents and provides warning to the Cybercrime center of India.
• Provides Emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents.
• Issue guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and whitepapers relating to information security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents. Etc..

-What is a "Gravity Rat" and how is it more dangerous than other Malwares???

'Gravity Rat' infiltrates a system in the form of an innocuous(harmless) looking email attachment, which can be in any format, including MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat or even audio and video files. Unlike most malware, which inflict short term damage, it is an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) i.e. it silently evolves and does long-term damage therefore, is very difficult to track and hunt down. It is self-aware and is capable of evading several commonly used malware detection techniques such as ‘sandboxing’(used to isolate malware from critical programs on infected devices and provide an extra layer of security).

Typically, malware activity is detected by the ‘noise’ it causes inside the Central Processing Unit, but 'Gravity RAT' is able to work silently. It can also gauge the temperature of the CPU if it determines that the device is carrying out high intensity activity, like a malware search and acts to evade detection.