Milware: Identification and Implications of State Authored Malicious Software
New Security Paradigms Workshop 2015
15 Pages Posted: 27 Feb 2015 Last revised: 11 Nov 2015
Date Written: February 25, 2015
Abstract
The pervasive development and deployment of malicious software by states presents a new challenge for the information security and policy communities because of the resource advantage and legal status of governments. The difference between state and non-state authored code is typically described in vague terms of sophistication, contributing to the inaccurate confirmation bias of many that states simply 'do it better'. This paper attempts to determine if state authored code is demonstrably different from that written by non-state actors and if so, how. To do so, we examine a collection of malware samples which, through existing analytic techniques, have been attributed to a mix of state and non-state actors. Reviewing technical information available in the public domain for each sample, reverse-engineering a sub-set, we determine that there is a set of criteria by which state authored code can be differentiated from the conventional malware of non-state groups. This MAlicious Software Sophistication or MASS index relies on a set of characteristics which describe the behavior and construction of malware including the severity of exploits and customization of the payload. In addition to highlighting these particular differences, the paper discusses several policy implications which arise from identifying a separate class of state-authored code. This is an interdisciplinary effort and pilot project based on a limited dataset however the conclusions drawn have important ramifications for both the information security and relevant policymaking communities.
Keywords: cybersecurity, malware, international security, reverse engineering
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