Nation state spying malware revealed

Symantec Security Response has discovered a new malware called Regin which, they say, "...displays a degree of technical competence rarely seen and has been used in spying operations against governments, infrastructure operators, businesses, researchers, and private individuals."

This back-door trojan has been in use, according to the security company, since at least 2008, and has stayed under the radar since.

The level of quality and the amount of effort put into keeping it secret convinces Symantec that it is a primary cyberespionage tool of a nation state. Regin is a multi-stage attack, each stage but the first encrypted and none by themselves especially revealing about the overall attack. The picture only emerges when you have all five stages.