Extremely Sophisticated Virus Mimics Your Behavior

There's a new type of malware that cybersecurity pros are calling "Hammertoss." This one is pretty advanced, because it can effectively hide in network traffic.

It's so hard to spot because it mimics your behavior, even checking Twitter or accessing your cloud on your schedule. Hackers can also send new commands to the virus hidden in images.

Lucky for most of us, this virus is only being used against high-profile targets like government officials and celebrities, but it's still just as frightening for the rest of us.

The hackers use social media and email accounts to weave their way through your server undetected, slowly checking one system and then another without raising any suspicion.

Many of the targets from the same group who launched this virus, MiniDuke, are United States and Western European government agencies and political organizations. This specific type of targeting makes analysts think that they are after classified political information to expose to the public.

“We ... think Hammertoss is only leveraged against critical targets,” Jen Weedon, manager of threat intelligence at FireEye, explained to ThreatPost. “The actors seem selective in using it versus other tools that are deployed more widely.”

This is not the first time MiniDuke has tried to take down targets with a virus like this. In February 2013, the hacking group aimed at political figures in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine and the United States.

We'll keep you updated on the Hammertoss virus as we learn more about how to find it and eliminate it.