Mumbai server may be linked to Duqu

Indian authorities are investigating a computer server in Mumbai for links to the Duqu malicious software that some security experts warned could be the next big cyber threat, Reuters reports.

Web Werks, a Mumbai-based Web-hosting company, said it had given an image of the suspicious virtual private server to officials from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, after security firm Symantec found the server was communicating with computers infected with the Duqu virus.

Sharing his views about the issue, Web Werks founder Nikhil Rathi said: “This is an unmanaged server. So you just make it and let the customer access it, and when you hand over a server to a customer, he can change his password and do whatever he wants with it,” News Tonight quotes.

According to ITP.net, news of Duqu first surfaced in late October, when Symantec announced it had found a virus with code similar to the Stuxnet virus that affected Iran's nuclear reactors.

Early analysis suggested the virus was developed by sophisticated hackers to help lay the groundwork for attacks on critical infrastructure such as power plants, oil refineries and pipelines.