Reuters reported that in a five-page, confidential “flash” warning sent to security staff of some of the companies, FBI provided some of the technical details of the malware. The FBI did not name Sony as the victim of this malware however those experts who are following the Sony breach said it was clearly linked to Sony hack attack. Reuters reported the advisory says the malware overrides all data on hard drives of computers, including the master boot record, which prevents them from booting up. Similar malware capable of wiping data has previously been seen in the cyber attack against South Korea and Middle Eastern countries including the attack on oil company Saudi Aramco. These attacks are believed to be well coordinated by hackers affiliated to North Korean and Iranian Government but there has never been such kind of attack on the U.S businesses thus far. Daniel Clemens of Packetninjas has posted information on a malware sample that possibly matches the malware used in the Sony breach and as described by the FBI in the Advisory.
