Bitdefender offers free removal tool for Duqu, or ‘son of Stuxnet,’ rootkit 

SYDNEY & AUCKLAND – October 21, 2011 –Bitdefender®, an award-winning provider of innovative internet security solutions, has released a free removal tool against an aggressive family of rootkit malware built on the notorious Stuxnet e-threat.

The new e-threat, dubbed Rootkit.Duqu.A, shares a multitude of features with the Stuxnet worm that was used in September 2010 to compromise the Iranian nuclear program. It protects a keylogger component that gathers information from the infected computers.

Rootkit.Duqu.A is built on relatively old technology but infections can lead to confidential information theft, loss of intellectual property and other risks associated with the presence of a keylogger.

“Although the Duqu rootkit has been attributed to the Stuxnet gang, we believe the two e-threats are completely unrelated,” said Catalin Cosoi, Head of the Bitdefender Online Threats Lab at Bitdefender. “Stuxnet has been successfully reverse-engineered and its code was published online earlier this year. Now, Stuxnet is serving as a source of inspiration for other cyber-criminal gangs. That code is serving as open source for the virus community, basically adding millions of dollars in value to the virus community’s R&D.”

The removal tool can be downloaded here: www.duquremoval.com.