German security firm claims Russian government behind malware

A German security firm claims a newly detected malware known as "Uroburos" was crafted by the Russian government, CNET is reporting. G Data Security says it believes the Russian government is behind the malware, which can "take control of an infected computer, execute arbitrary commands, and hide system activities" because of the complexity of the malware and the presence of Cyrillic words, CNET reported Friday. A G Data blog author who uses the blog name "MN" said Uroburos scans a computer for a previous piece of malware known as Agent.BTZ that's been tied to Russia. "Uroburos checks for the presence of Agent.BTZ and remains inactive if it is installed," MN wrote. A serious attack against the Pentagon in 2008 has been linked to Agent.BTZ. "Uroburos' driver part is extremely complex and is designed to be very discrete and very difficult to identify," MN wrote, saying the malware was designed to steal files and monitor a computers network communications. CNET said it received no response to a request for comment from the Russian consulate in San Francisco.