22.08.2012, 15:21
Zitat:What is Gauss hiding?
Talking to Jarno Limnéll, cyber security expert
Matt Nash, August 19, 2012 share
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NOW Lebanon spoke with Jarno Limnéll, director of cyber security at Stonesoft Corporation, to get his thoughts on what Gauss might really be up to.
When you first heard about Gauss, who did you think it was targeting?
Jarno Limnéll: I think that when more than two-thirds of infected computers are located in Lebanon, and I think that when we most probably know that Gauss was produced by the factories (meaning Israel and the US) as Stuxnet, I’m pretty sure the main target is to follow the banking flows in Lebanon, and what is the most important, most interesting issue for the United States and Israel in Lebanon, that’s Hezbollah. [They are] especially [concerned] about the money flowing between Syria, Iran and Lebanon, meaning Hezbollah. This is only money, but as we all know, getting to know how the money is moving it tells you quite a lot, for example, about the arms trade.
What do you think Gauss’s mystery code is hiding?
Limnéll: It’s very hard to say anything about it, but I think it might involve some kind of surveillance, even a more sophisticated tool, targeting Hezbollah. It could be just one way to get in, to know more about how the organization works, what are their current activities with Iran, with Syria at the current moment. [The US and Israel] are more interested at this moment to follow what Hezbollah is doing and how they are cooperating or doing what Iran hopes them to do at this moment.
Stuxnet was designed to disrupt centrifuges that Iran is using to enrich uranium. Do you think Gauss was partially designed to disrupt Hezbollah’s military or communication systems?
Limnéll: No, to be short, and in my opinion, I don’t believe there’s that kind of mystery code in this. I think whatever the mystery code is, it is there more or less for surveillance purposes. I don’t think in this malware there is a physical part of it that would create some sort of disorder. I think this is surveillance malware. But, at the same time, those speculations you gave me about the mystery code, I would not be surprised at all if there is another malware already in Lebanon doing something like this but that we are not aware of it yet.
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