It sounds like something from a big budget Hollywood movie but its true. Some clever folks strung together a series of exploits in computer software and came up with the first computer virus targeting Siemens’ computer control software for manufacturing robots. The virus is designed to steal design information and upload it to a remote server. This is industrial espionage on steroids. Oh and it also infects control systems used on nuclear powered aircraft carriers.
It is passed from computer to computer via USB drives. It starts with .lnk shortcut files in Windows. Windows runs these files in the background and the malware installs a rootkit. The virus propagates to any other USB drive that subsequently attached to an infected computer. The Trojan is designed to infect WinCC software. Its sole purpose is to steal design information in control systems. It uses a hardcoded password in the Siemens software; for fans of the movie Wargames it is a backdoor password used by Siemens.
See the complete article in CNET News. http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20011159-245.html?tag=topStories3