"Flame" virus invades Iran and self-destructs after screenshot recording, suspected to be made by the United States and Israel
News Topic: Warning! Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab released a report on the 28th, confirming that the new computer virus "Flame" has invaded Iran and many other Middle Eastern countries. Computer security experts believe that this new type of virus is the most complex computer virus in the world so far and may be "a cyber warfare weapon specially developed by a certain country." On the 28th, the Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab announced that it had discovered a highly destructive "Flame" computer virus. Measured in terms of complexity and functional effectiveness, the newly emerged "Flame" is currently the most powerful computer virus in the world. What can it do? Kaspersky's chief expert Vidali Karuk said that this new type of virus will not cause real harm to the computer, but its spying function is very powerful. A computer infected with the virus will automatically analyze the user's Internet surfing patterns, record user passwords, automatically take screenshots and save some files and communication information, and can even secretly turn on the microphone for secret recording, etc., and then send the stolen information to a server that remotely controls the virus. The reason why "Flame" has such a powerful spy function is that its program structure is very complex. No virus has ever reached this level before. Technicians said that the size of "Flame" reaches 20 MB, which is 100 times the size of ordinary commercial information theft viruses. It can be copied and spread through USB storage and the Internet, and can accept instructions from multiple servers around the world. Once the task of collecting data is completed, these viruses can also destroy themselves without leaving a trace. Kaspersky Lab says it will take researchers years to analyze Flame because it is so complex. It has been latent for 5 years. Although the virus was only recently discovered, many experts believe that it may have been present for 5 years and is mainly targeting Middle Eastern countries. According to the BBC, thousands of computers in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been infected with the virus. Moreover, the attack activities of this virus are irregular*, and personal computers, educational institutions, various non-governmental organizations and state agencies have all been patronized by it. Emails, files, messages, internal discussions, etc. are all objects of its collection. If this conclusion is true, it means that the "culprit" behind the virus is now more technologically advanced. Mohan Ku, a senior manager at Dtex Systems, a British cyber security company, said: "What scares me most is that if they could have made this thing ('Flame') five years ago, what are they developing now?" Iran is the hardest hit area by the virus. Some analysts believe that the discovery of the new virus will add fuel to the fire, fueling speculation about the secret deployment of cyber weapons by several countries, and then triggering cyber warfare. Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab, said: "Cyber warfare has become the hottest topic in the field of information security in recent years, and the new virus seems to mean another stage of this war." Kaspersky senior researcher Skowenberg said that the amount of code contained in the "Flame" virus is about 20 times that of the previously discovered "Stuxnet" virus (Stuxnet) or "Duqu" virus (Duqu), and there is evidence that both "Flame" and "Stuxnet" are controlled by the same organization or country. Prior to this, the computer systems in Iran's nuclear facilities had been attacked by "Stuxnet" and "Poison Zone" many times, and some centrifuges used for uranium enrichment were unable to operate. Iranian officials have accused the United States and Israel of developing and spreading viruses such as Stuxnet aimed at disrupting Iran's nuclear program. The New York Times reported in January last year that Stuxnet "may have been created jointly by the U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies" to prevent Iran's nuclear activities. U.S. officials declined to comment. Currently, Iran's National Computer Emergency Response Team has issued a security alert, pointing out that "Flame" is the cause of a large number of recent data losses in Iran. Iran has decided to conduct an emergency inspection of the computer systems of all official institutions in the country to rule out possible virus attacks.(Comprehensive reports from Xinhua News Agency and China Daily) "Metropolitan Express" *Source of this post: cnBeat*
