An Incurable Computer Virus

If Governments and Corporations around the world aren’t on edge over cyber security, after last week’s Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, they should be. French hacker Jonathan Brossard demonstrated a computer virus last week that hides in a computer's BIOS and is immune to both security software and switching hard disks. The backdoor tool, dubbed Rakshasa, is designed to be extraordinarily stealthy, relying on an internet connection to fetch the the code needed to compromise the computer each time the PC is turned on. "For a nation-state-quality back door... we want plausible deniability," explained Brossard. "If you fetch over the Internet every time, we don't leave a trace on the file system." Rakshasa only weakness are that it requires an internet connection, and needs to be installed on the BIOS to function. However, Brossard does say that Rakshasa can also be hidden in other computer components, like network cards, and then jump to the BIOS when the opportunity arises.