Researchers Uncover Pre-Stuxnet ‘fast16’ Malware Targeting Engineering Software
A new Lua-based malware that was developed years before the infamous Stuxnet worm, which sought to undermine Iran's nuclear program by destroying uranium enrichment centrifuges, has been found by cybersecurity researchers.
The previously unreported cyber sabotage architecture dates back to 2005 and mainly targets high-precision computation tools to tamper with results, according to a recent analysis released by SentinelOne. The code for it is fast16.
In a comprehensive analysis released this week, researchers Vitaly Kamluk and Juan Andrés Guerrero-Saade stated that the attackers hope to generate comparable faulty estimates throughout a facility by combining this payload with self-propagation mechanisms.
Fast16 is thought to have existed at least five years before Stuxnet, the fir...