Remote Access Computer Trojan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Remote Access Computer Trojan - Research Paper Example RATs are broadly defined as the malevolent computer programs which are entered into the victim’s computer in order to gain access to his confidential information and general activities. These are usually attached to some gaming program or anything else which is often executed by the victims. Once the Trojan is ready to perform its task the intruder is immediately informed through an e-mail. In some cases, the hacker is able to use victim’s IP address, while in case of corporations the financial transactions or other business operations are usually intervened. Let’s consider an example of China where 72 organizations including government offices, corporations and non-profit companies were infected by Remote Access Trojan. This violation was a typical criminal attack in order to leak out confidential information and also to interrupt various financial transactions. However, hunger for country secrets is considered less threatening than financial loss according to M acAfee investigation report covering this breach. Shady RAT, which is a latest Remote Access Tool, was used in this particular cyber-crime. MacAfee detections reveal that Shady RAT specifically slows down the computer system and hence it is generally known as â€Å"low and slow† cybersecurity attack. Experts could not identify the real culprits of this case with complete authenticity however, few individuals were seriously suspected. Initially, the RAT attack was identified in 2009 by the MacAfee officials while investigating a defence contractor.se contractor [Mat11]. Thereafter the MacAfee team identified spear-phishing attack which implies that the breach had occurred through entering the command in HTML comments on the web links. MacAfee investigated that the Shady RAT attack had actually initiated in the mid-2006. These attacks were then expanded to 38 Chinese organizations by 2008 [Mat11]. Losses of confidentiality, integrity and availability Much of the confidential information held by the government offices was lost in addition to financial statements. Moreover the intruders were able to penetrate different business operations over a longer period of time and hence it became a matter of