Hackers have identified and began exploiting a new “Shellshock” computer bug. It uses fast-moving worm viruses to scan systems and find their weaknesses. Ultimately, the viruses locate the weaknesses and infect them.
The warning came on Thursday, when experts said that the discovery is the first of its kind since “Heartbleed,” back in April.
However, where “Hearbleed” attacked data, and would work to steal various bits of information – “Shellshock” works to simply takeover, and command infected devices. But, Shellshock isn’t anticipated to impact as many systems as Heartbleed did, simply due to the fact that Shellshock, according to experts, works from software known as Bash, and not all systems that run Bash can be exploited.
It’s worth pointing out though that just because Shellshock isn’t anticipated to impact as many devices, there is still a reasonable chance that a significant amount of damage could be done – since the work of the virus is to “take over, destroy data, shut down networks, or launch attacks.”
Shellshock definitely has a grimmer outlook associated with it, to those who evaluate it on the surface.
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Even the well-versed experts in internet technology though aren’t sure what to expect out of this bug, or sure how widespread the bug is. However, the focus though seems to be on avoiding hysteria or over-reaction.
Which is completely understandable when talking about a virus that could potentially bring a technology driven world to its knees, should the worst case scenario happen.
Marc Maiffret, Chief Technology Officer of a cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, said that “there is a lot of speculation out there as to what is vulnerable, but we just don’t have the answers.”
Others voices in the tech space are simply stating their concern for a virus that has the potential to do the amount of damage that Shellshock could do. This is something that will continue to garner more and more attention as information about Shellshock becomes apparent.
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As of right now, the tech space is breathing a sigh of relief that the virus isn’t worse than it currently appears to be, and as a whole – cautious optimism is prevailing right now in the public eye, and that is definitely for the best.
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