Regin is a piece of Spyware that seems to aim at a wide range of targets including small and large businesses, private researchers, individuals and even governments. It is highly sophisticated and has been developed to remain undetected, it is speculated that it was created by a government due to the high quality of the malware.
Regin gets into a computer or system as a Trojan, most likely through getting people to visit a spoofed website, and then after several encryption processes releases its payload, which can include stealing passwords, taking over webcams, capturing screenshots, monitoring sites that are visited, recovering deleted files and more. It also is able to infiltrate GSM phone networks so Regin can receive commands over a mobile network, which is highly unique.
Most of the infections seem to have taken place in just a handful of countries, the most numerous being in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Ireland. It has been around since about 2008 according to Symantec.
Do I need to be worried about Regin?
Unless you’re involved in something a government finds interesting you probably don’t need to worry. As always though it pays to be secure in the sites that you visit, check they are in fact the offical sites and not set up to trick you. Don’t click on anything you didn’t specifically request and don’t open emails from people you don’t know. Adult, gambling and torrent sites are known carriers of malware so be specially careful on these types of sites.
