This is “the bad guy” Sauron, from “the lord of the rings”. ProjectSauron is what the well-known Russian malware fighting company Kaspersky Labs named a new discovery of theirs (almost simultaneously announced the same thing the American Symantec). The “spyware” software steals passwords from entire networks, while it is specially specialized to hit computers of specific use and remove files of special interest from them. Both the American and the Russian company agree: this is the work of some state service.
So far, the issue seems indifferent. Governments against governments, companies against companies… and what do we care? The first point of interest, “light” and somewhat philosophical, is that that heroic figure of the independent cyber intruder, the hacker, tends to disappear from the foreground of history. Not because individual, “private” hackers have ceased to exist. But because they are no longer at the center of the stage. And we are certain that they will not be found there again.
The second is more “heavyweight.” Regarding electronic leaks, the “concentration of capital” (both money and brains), this powerful capitalist rule, now clearly shows what the cyberspace is. And, mainly, who the bosses are in it.
Our individual hope that we are small and insignificant and, consequently, out of harm’s way, is half-baked indifference packaged as apathy. When we become, willingly or not (the “willingly” refers to social networks and the internet of things – the “unwillingly” refers to banks and electronic transactions/payments), the flesh – mass of the cyberworld, WE ARE the target; at least a large part of it.
We do not recommend returning to the caves! We recommend critical distancing from what is not absolutely necessary…