Malware on Unsecure Flash Drives - The IronKey Response Part I

The media has recently reported incidents involving the spread of the W32.SillyFDC worm, a low-risk piece of malware that sometimes infects PCs and networks via USB flash drives. Several government agencies have implemented a temporary ban on removable media.

IronKey have announced a comprehensive initiative to protect portable and mobile media from viruses, worms, trojans, botnets, crimeware and other malware threats. IronKey’s initial research was partially funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate.

The IronKey secure USB devices can withstand both simple and sophisticated attacks and all IronKey products have been FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated. IronKey devices are intelligent, secure storage devices with strong, two-factor authentication and on-board security co-processors. As security processor costs become more affordable, it is possible to embed increasingly sophisticated layers of protection inside portable devices to protect enterprise and government networks from media-borne malware and crimeware. This enables IronKey secure storage devices to provide the highest levels of anti-virus and anti-malware support in hardware. Hardware support for anti-malware provides an unbeatable layer of protection for mobile devices to prevent malware from spreading onto enterprise networks.

The IronKey Anti-Malware Initiative information can be found here.
Key points of the initiative include:- Always-on Milirary Grade hardware encryption.- Malware-protected software and firmware updates.- Secure manufacturing processes.- Secure provisioning and quality assurance processes.- Real-time anti-malware scanning.

Three Million Users hit by Windows Worm - Part 1

A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users. The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.
Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines. Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch.

According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called "services.exe" and then becomes part of that code. It then copies itself into the Windows system folder as a random file of a type known as a "dll". It gives itself a 5-8 character name, such as piftoc.dll, and then modifies the Registry, which lists key Windows settings, to run the infected dll file as a service. Once the worm is up and running, it creates an HTTP server, resets a machine's System Restore point (making it far harder to recover the infected system) and then downloads files from the hacker's web site.

Most malware uses one of a handful of sites to download files from, making them fairly easy to locate, target, and shut down. But Conficker does things differently. Anti-virus firm F-Secure says that the worm uses a complicated algorithm to generate hundreds of different domain names every day, such as mphtfrxs.net, imctaef.cc, and hcweu.org. Only one of these will actually be the site used to download the hackers' files. On the face of it, tracing this one site is almost impossible.

Speaking to the BBC, Kaspersky Lab's security analyst, Eddy Willems, said that a new strain of the worm was complicating matters. "There was a new variant released less than two weeks ago and that's the one causing most of the problems," said Mr Willems "The replication methods are quite good. It's using multiple mechanisms, including USB sticks, so if someone got an infection from one company and then takes his USB stick to another firm, it could infect that network too. It also downloads lots of content and creating new variants though this mechanism." "Of course, the real problem is that people haven't patched their software. If people do patch their software, they should have little to worry about," he added. Technicians have reverse engineered the worm so they can predict one of the possible domain names. This does not help them pinpoint those who created Downadup, but it does give them the ability to see how many machines are infected. "Right now, we're seeing hundreds of thousands of unique IP addresses connecting to the domains we've registered," F-Secure's Toni Kovunen said in a statement. "We can see them, but we can't disinfect them - that would be seen as unauthorised use." Microsoft says that the malware has infected computers in many different parts of the world, with machines in China, Brazil, Russia, and India having the highest number of victims.