While the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, there is another kind of pandemic that could also be spreading around the world.

Only, this one could be spreading in a digital space.

Way back in 2017 Wikileaks published documents from the “Pandemic” project of the CIA, that turns computer servers into infectious Patient Zero.

“Pandemic,” as the implant is codenamed, turns file servers into a secret carrier of whatever malware CIA operatives want to install, according to documents published by WikiLeaks.

When computers attempt to access a file on the compromised server, Pandemic uses a clever bait-and-switch tactic to surreptitiously deliver malicious version of the requested file.

This is what WikiLeaks officials wrote about the „Pandemic“;

„To obfuscate its activity, the original file on the file server remains unchanged; it is only modified/replaced while in transit from the pandemic file server before being executed on the computer of the remote user. The implant allows the replacement of up to 20 programs with a maximum size of 800 MB for a selected list of remote users (targets).

As the name suggests, a single computer on a local network with shared drives that is infected with the “Pandemic” implant will act like a “Patient Zero” in the spread of a disease. It will infect remote computers if the user executes programs stored on the pandemic file server. Although not explicitly stated in the documents, it seems technically feasible that remote computers that provide file shares themselves become new pandemic file servers on the local network to reach new targets.“

A user manual said Pandemic takes only 15 seconds to be installed.

The documents didn’t describe precisely how Pandemic would get installed on a file server.

This was published in the “Vault 7” Wikileaks series and, as ArsTehnica reported, CIA officials have never confirmed or refuted the authenticity of the documents released in the “Vault 7” series, which WikiLeaks claims includes confidential documents it obtained when the CIA “lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal.”