So here’s what you need to know about “Regin” the stealth spy program

This may not or may come to many as a surprise but yesterday in a blog post, the secutity company Symantec unmasked a program that has been running presumably since 2008 unchecked.  A stealth spying program has been stealing data from your ISPs, airline, research and other major companies for years and this is has gone unchecked until recently. This program is called “Regin”.

This revelation was made known by the security company Symantec which recently split into two companies which has been a trend this year with Tech companies.

With a “degree of technical competence rarely seen”, Regin had probably taken years to develop, Symantec said. It suspected that this a country may have written this program to serve as a back door channel to its spying campaign. This remains unconfirmed as of the time of this report though.

The program had been used in “systematic spying campaigns” over the past six years, Symantec said. The company continued by saying “Many components of Regin remain undiscovered and additional functionality and versions may exist.” Symantec also added that “Its design makes it highly suited for persistent, long-term surveillance operations against targets.”

Its generally believed that this program had existed for six years unchecked.
Victims had been infected via spoofed versions of well-known websites and by exploiting known vulnerabilities in web browser software, said Symantec in a detailed analysis.

Regin is believed to have the ability to
• access your windows devices remotely
• take screen shots of you PC and now that supports the spying allegations stated by Symantec
• mouse control although we can’t say exactly how it does this
• sift through and steal data stealthily
• recover deleted files

My take

This just confirms reports of probably western secret surveillance systems and I bet this is not going to be the last of such news. I do believe there is a much greater program being sponsored by various governments across the world but particulay the west. I do also believe that in light of recent security challenges in the world, we need to stike a balance between security and privacy on the web. There should be probable cause before an agency of government is allowed to spy on me or other web users. Lastly, I think Symantec has done a good job in uncovering this. Since no nation has come out to take responsibilty for this, its too premature what country designed this actually.

In conclusion, much of the evidence points to the west because if you look at the chart above, you’ll see that Regin cases have been predominant in countries other than top western nations like the US, France, UK and Germany.

Read more about this from the Symatec site