A security lab attached to the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary has come forward as the mystery outfit that found the Stuxnet-like “Duqu” cyber-surveillance Trojan.
According to Symantec’s initial report on Duqu [PDF], the malware sample was passed along by an unnamed “research lab with strong international connections,” a statement that led to speculation about the origins and intent of the threat.
[ Stuxnet 2.0? Researchers find new 'cyber-surveillance' malware threat ]
Today, a brief statement from the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS) in Hungary confirmed its participation:
Our lab, the Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS) participated in the discovery of Duqu malware within an international collaboration. While gathering deeper knowledge about its functionality, we have confirmed Duqu is a threat nearly identical to Stuxnet. After the thorough analysis of samples we prepared a detailed report about Duqu, named by us. We immediately provided competent organizations with the initial report in order to jointly step up in a professionally prepared way. Our research lab will provide the professional community and the public with all relevant details in the future as well. But we can not reveal further information about the ongoing case. Instead of speculating we encourage all professional organizations to enhance the joint process of finding a solution, since strong international collaboration will remain to play a key role.
The lab did not offer any additional details.
Duqu was created to hijack sensitive data from a handful of high-value targets. Security researchers are continuing to find new drivers associated with this attack.
