Product Code Database
Cyberweapons are commonly defined as malware agents employed for military, paramilitary, or intelligence objectives as part of a cyberattack. This includes computer Computer virus, trojans, spyware, and Computer worm that can introduce malicious code into existing software, causing a computer to perform actions or processes unintended by its operator.
Unlike malware used by to organize , where the ownership, physical location, and normal role of the machines attacked is largely irrelevant, cyberweapons show high in either or both of their employment and their operation. Before the attack, cyberweapons usually identify the target using different methods. Likewise, malware employed by for the theft of personal or financial information demonstrates lower selectivity and wider distribution.
Cyberweapons are dangerous for multiple reasons. They are typically difficult to track or defend against due to their lack of physical components. Their anonymity allows them to hide in systems undetected until their attack is unleashed. Many of these attacks exploit "zero days" (vulnerabilities in software that companies have zero days to fix). They are also significantly cheaper to produce than cyber defenses to protect against them. Oftentimes, cyberweapons from one force are obtained by an opposing force and are then repurposed to be used against the original force, as can be seen with the cyberweapons WannaCry and NotPetya.
While the term cyber weapon is frequently used by the press, some articles avoid it, instead using terms such as "internet weapon", "hack", or "virus". Mainstream researchers debate the requirements of the term while still referring to the employment of the agent as a "weapon", and the software development community in particular uses the term more rarely.
Stuxnet was subsequently followed by Duqu in 2011 and Flame in 2012. Flame's complexity was unmatched at the time. It used vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows to spread. It specifically targeted Iranian oil terminals.
In 2017, showed that supposedly secure hacking tools used by government agencies can be obtained − and sometimes exposed − by third parties. Furthermore, it was reported that after losing control of such tools the government appears to leave "exploits open to be re-used by scammers, criminals, or anyone else − for any purpose". Claudio Guarnieri, a technologist from Amnesty International states: "what we learn from the disclosures and leaks of the last months is that unknown vulnerabilities are maintained secret even after they've been clearly lost, and that is plain irresponsible and unacceptable".
Also in that year WikiLeaks released the Vault 7 documents series that contain details of CIA exploits and tools with Julian Assange stating that they are working to "disarm" them before publication. Disarmament of cyber weapons may come in the form of contacting respective software vendors with information of vulnerabilities in their products as well as potential help with or autonomous development (for open source software) of patches. The exploitation of hacking tools by third parties has particularly affected the United States National Security Agency (NSA). In 2016, information about NSA hacking tools was captured by a Chinese hacking group, ATP3, that allowed them to reverse engineer their own version of the tool. It was subsequently used against European and Asian nations, though the United States was not targeted. Later that year, an anonymous group called the "Shadow Brokers" leaked what are widely believed to be NSA tools online. These two groups are not known to be affiliated, and ATP3 had access to the tools at least a year before the Shadow Brokers leak. The leaked tools were developed by the Equation Group, a cyberwarfare group with suspected ties to the NSA.
Among the tools leaked by the Shadow Brokers was EternalBlue, which the NSA had used to exploit bugs in Microsoft Windows. This prompted Microsoft to issue updates to guard against the tool. When the Shadow Brokers publicly released EternalBlue, it was quickly used by North Korean and Russian hackers, who formed it into the ransomware WannaCry and NotPetya, respectively. NotPetya, which was initially launched in Ukraine but subsequently spread around the world, encrypted hard drives and forced users to pay a ransom fee for their data, despite never actually giving the data back.
In September 2018, the United States Department of Defense officially confirmed that the United States uses cyberweapons to advance national interests.
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