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Powerful "Flame" cyber weapon found in Iran
yahoo ^ | May, 28, 2012 | By Jim Finkle

Posted on 05/28/2012 12:12:28 PM PDT by ckilmer

BOSTON (Reuters) - Security experts discovered a highly complex computer virus in Iran and the Middle East that they believe was deployed at least five years ago to engage in state-sponsored espionage. Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran's nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that claimed responsibility for discovering the virus.

Iran's National Computer Emergency Response Team also said Flame might be linked to recent cyber attacks that officials in Tehran have said were responsible for massive data losses on some Iranian computer systems.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: cyberweapons; flame; iran; israel; nuclearweapons; tech
If this virus has managed to delete immense amounts of data related to Iran's nuclear program--then that would explain the softening tone of Israeli officials in recent months.
1 posted on 05/28/2012 12:12:41 PM PDT by ckilmer
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To: ckilmer

You know it was the Israelis who wrote it.


2 posted on 05/28/2012 12:35:39 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“You know it was the Israelis who wrote it.”

If I had to guess, and that’s all I can do, I’d say it was written by the Israelis and the NSA.


3 posted on 05/28/2012 1:04:02 PM PDT by MtBaldy (If Obama is the answer, it must have been a really stupid question)
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To: ckilmer
"Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame are all examples where we - the anti-virus industry - have dramatically failed," he said. "All of these cases were spreading undetected for extended periods of time ... Yet, anti-virus products failed to protect users against these attacks."

To the extent that Flame, Duqu, and Stuxnet are tools for national security, I would say that the anti-virus makers have succeeded. If Iran wants to go on its own for anti-virus computer security, to avoid these gaps in American software security, that's even better.

4 posted on 05/28/2012 1:39:12 PM PDT by Pollster1 (“A boy becomes a man when a man is needed.” - John Steinbeck)
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To: ckilmer

God bless whoever wrote them, for knocking Iran’s work back. Lord knows it pisses off our Muslim in chief.

On the flipside I think their stuxnet stuff went too far damaging fukushima systems for getting back at them for promising to help Iran enrich their uranium.


5 posted on 05/28/2012 5:19:08 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
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