Symantec Links Trojans, Malware to CIA Hacking Tools
By Tom Brant April 10, 2017 08:26 pm EST A series of computer viruses targeting companies and organizations closely resembles the Vault 7 hacking tools that WikiLeaks disclosed. CIA hacking tools that WikiLeaks exposed as part of its Vault 7 data dump are linked to a rash of trojans and zero-day vulnerabilities that have infected computers since 2011, anti-virus software Symantec claimed this week. The attacks, which Symantec researchers have lumped together into a single virus that they codenamed "Longhorn," have targeted at least 40 different organizations in 16 countries in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The victims include companies in the financial, telecom, energy, aerospace, IT, education, and natural resources sectors, as well as governments and international NGOs. Symantec made the link between Longhorn and the WikiLeaks CIA hacking trove using changelog data, which shows that new features were added to the CIA tools at the same tim...