Commercial software opens cyber-terror backdoor

US firm warns of life-cycle attacks buried deep within millions of lines of code

US military, government, security and critical infrastructure agencies are being warned against using commercial software which could be hacked by foreign cyber-terrorists.

The warning was issued by Cyber Defense Agency (CDA), an information security consulting and research company specialising in services for the US government and infrastructure sectors.

CDA said that gas, electricity, telecoms, banking and water companies are among the critical service providers that could fall victim to cyber-terrorism caused by so-called life-cycle attacks buried deep within millions of lines of software code.

Life-cycle attacks occur when one line of code is rigged to open vulnerabilities within the software, thus exposing the software and the company to external threats, CDA stated.

Full article: vnunet.com