Flame cyber weapon was jointly developed by U.S. and Israel, report says

We’ve written about the diabolical Flame malware that reportedly evaded security programs due to its highly complex programming. According to the Washington Post, officials knowledgeable about the subject said that U.S. and Israel jointly developed the sophisticated computer virus. The officials reportedly added that Flame secretly monitored Iran’s computer networks while sending back a stream of intelligence to “prepare for a cyberwarfare campaign”. The publication notes that the cyberwarfare campaign is all about disrupting Iran’s nuclear weapon development. The National Security Agency, the CIA, and Israeli military reportedly used destructive software to cyber-sabotage Iran’s nuclear projects.

Security experts are saying that Flame was designed to replicate secure networks. It can reportedly manipulate computer microphones and cameras, log keyboard strokes, take screenshots, extract geolocation data from images, and send and receive data via Bluetooth. The malware disguised itself as a routinary Microsoft software update. Microsoft has already released a software patch in hopes of stopping it. “This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action. Cyber-collection against the Iranian program is way further down the road than this,” an official told the Washington Post. Meanwhile, the CIA, National Security Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Israeli Embassy in Washington, did not comment about the report.

Gene Ryan Briones
Categories: Web
Tags: Malware, Security