Chernobyl 2: Spies plotted to create new virus to "remotely destroy" PCs

A computer virus so stealthy it could have been buried in millions of machines - allowing a foreign attacker to instantly destroy them from afar - was thwarted by America’s National Security Agency.

The scale of the attack could have "taken down the U.S. economy," NSA officials claimed.

At least, that’s what agency director Keith Alexander claimed in a 60-minute interview on CBS - saying that the agency worked “with computer manufacturers” to stop the attack.

The virus would have attacked PCs before they even turned on, the NSA claimed - attacking the BIOS software which ‘turns on’ components before Windows starts.

The alleged attack has echoes of one of the most famous and damaging computer viruses of all time - 1998’s Chernobyl attack, which damaged millions of PCs and remained in the news for years. It too could attack PCs at the BIOS level.

It caused incalculable financial damage worldwide, and still infects PCs today, 15 years later, according to Symantec.

         ['Robots will steal our jobs - and managers are doomed,' new book claims]

Debora Plunkett, cyber defense director for the NSA, said, "One of our analysts actually saw that the nation state had the intention to develop and to deliver, to actually use this capability-- to destroy computers.

"Think about the impact of that across the entire globe. It could literally take down the U.S. economy."

Alexander claimed that PCs would be fooled by a “request for a software update”, then the software would have “remotely destroyed” them.

Alexander did not name the foreign power behind the attack, but CBS mentioned China in its report.

It’s not clear how the malware would be distributed - although the NSA director mentioned targeted emails - or what the ‘trigger’ would be.

In the case of the Chernobyl virus, it was a date - April 26, at which point, computers could become unusable as the malware overwrote code on chips.

Symantec says it’s believed that the Chernobyl virus still infects some PCs.

Symantec says, “On April 26, 1999, the payload triggered for the first time, causing many computer users to lose their data. In Korea, it was estimated that as many as one million computers were affected, resulting in more than $250 million in damages.”

“Although the virus is rather old, Symantec still believes the virus is in the wild and may cause damage to computer users who use outdated virus definitions, or who do not use antivirus software.”

During the interview, Alexander also claimed that allegations of US spying were overstated,
saying that the U.S. was “listening to” less than 60 people globally.

British tech site The Register’s Simon Sharwood said, “One thing seems certain: the NSA has decided it needs to play harder in the battle for hearts and minds in the USA and beyond. 60 Minutes seems to have decided to play along.”