Bangalore: A prominent Russian based internet security firm revealed that it had discovered a new and powerful virus that has extraordinary destructive potential, which is being utilized as a "cyberweapon" against several countries.
Kaspersky Lab, producers of largest anti-virus software said that their team of experts has discovered the virus known as “Flame” during an investigation process under the guidance of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The firm said that countries like in Iran and others in the Middle East have been attacked using this spyware virus.
Flame is a data stealing virus that has creeped into thousands of computers across the Middle East for almost five years as part of a sophisticated cyber warfare campaign.
Comments by Israel’s vice premier have hinted that the awful Flame spyware is a product of Israel, as a defensive strategy against Iran's nuclear program which sees it as a mortal Threat reports Economic Times.
Moshe Yaalon told Army Radio on Tuesday, "Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take various steps, including these, to hobble it."
He added, "Israel is blessed with high technology, and we boast tools that open all sorts of opportunities for us."
Roel Schouwenberg, security senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab said that "If Flame went on undiscovered for five years, the only logical conclusion is that there are other operations ongoing that we don't know about."
Researchers at Kaspersky said that they are still not very familiar with Flame and are in the process of understanding how the virus works because of its complex features. Moreover, they have also mentioned that the full significance will not be known until other cyber security firms obtain samples of Flame.
Kaspersky Lab’s research shows that Iran is the most affected country with largest number of infected machines, followed by the Israel/Palestine region, then Sudan and Syria.
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