05.28.12
Flame virus makes great press release
Kaspersky Lab announces the discovery of a highly sophisticated malicious program that is actively being used as a cyber weapon attacking entities in several countries. The complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious program exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date.
The malware was discovered by Kaspersky Lab’s experts during an investigation prompted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The malicious program, detected as Worm.Win32.Flame by Kaspersky Lab’s security products, is designed to carry out cyber espionage. It can steal valuable information, including but not limited to computer display contents, information about targeted systems, stored files, contact data and even audio conversations …
Although the features of Flame differ compared with those of previous notable cyber weapons such as Duqu and Stuxnet, the geography of attacks, use of specific software vulnerabilities, and the fact that only selected computers are being targeted all indicate that Flame belongs to the same category of super-cyberweapons.
Commenting on uncovering Flame, Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, said: “The risk of cyber warfare has been one of the most serious topics in the field of information security for several years now.
A few additional notes:
1. It would appear you can hide your malware longer if it is designed to specifically attack only pariah nations like Iran and Sudan, the latter which has nothing worth stealing by cyber-espionage, anyway. But eventually, even though it takes awhile, the virus will always screw up or splatter and wind up somewhere else. Like Hungary. Oops. Sorry ’bout that.
2. Therefore countries like Iran are still very poor at cybersecurity. They may remain that way due to the nature of the regimes, leadership and really lousy social fit with networked computing, which is directly inimical to their interests and way of doing things. (Notorious braggarts: “The Iranian government said Tuesday it has produced an antivirus program capable of fighting what computer experts are calling ‘the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed’ …)
3. Flame was probably discovered because it eventually did spread onto non-target systems in Israel or elsewhere causing unspecified problems noted by the “International Telecommunication Union.”
4. Every virus worthy of a press release, discovered infecting the sensitive computers of western enemies, like Iran, is a supervirus of astounding complexity and another proof of the growing terrible menace of cyberwar.
5. Discovery of these things is good for generating interest and international publicity for anti-virus firms. Therefore they will compete more vigorously in the doing of it. Which is a back-handed social benefit because it will more quickly spoil cyberwar and harassment campaigns launched by the military and intelligence agencies of the west.
Eugene Kaspersky, one of the “original” antivirus experts, is nearly a billionaire now. And he’s known of me for a LONG time. B-)
— Rob Rosenberger (@rsnbrgr) July 15, 2011
@meincranbourne said,
May 28, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Yeah, if you can read through the hype injected by the media concerning this virus, it is an interesting 5 year old infestation that would have been replaced.