What’s so scary about this little blue pill? Well, it represents the prototype for a (currently) completely untraceable, and therefore unrepairable, new type of software which can infect a computer with malware.
The only good news is that the person alerting the world to this new menace is the ethical hacker/researcher who invented it. Joanna Rutkowska is a security researcher who is making her findings public in order to allow the entire security world to work on the issue. While is is probably not a threat to your current machine, it does use technology planned for upcoming PCs.
I cannot over emphasize the amount of risk this type of technology represents. The little blue pill could give anyone complete access to a computer and all data within it. Imagine a corporate database server with credit cards stored within. Or even your personal computer with all of your sensitive data.
I don’t wish to be an alarmist, but it is important that people are aware that computer security is of paramount importance. As I mentioned in my previous posting, there are a number of things you can do to keep yourself safe from most current threats.
If you are extremely paranoid and also wish to ensure that your computer does not have a RootKit installed, these links should offer some assistance:
