We understand why Obama is failing to act against Iran, but Israel? We just might have the answer to that question . . . . . and it is the baddest computer virus in the Cosmos

It is clear to this blogger that folks within the Bush very secret service, helped to develop a virus that is 20 times more potent than the famous Stuxnet virus that shut down much of Iran's nuclear project a couple of years ago.  It just might prove to be Obama's savior.  Time will tell.  Meanwhile,  let's see how long it takes for Obama to  (a) take credit for the virus and (b) to expose those who helped in its development, you know,  like he did with the Yemenite double agent,  Seal Team Six and the Pakistani doctor who helped locate Osama bin Laden.  

A new, unprecedented computer virus called “Flame” (or “sKyWIper”) has hit Iran, the West Bank, and other Middle Eastern locations. It is already considered one of the most sophisticated cyber weapons ever unleashed. Internet security company Kaspersky said Monday that Flame was the “most complex piece of malicious software discovered to date.”     The cyber-espionage worm, designed to collect and delete sensitive information, is said to have 20 times as much code as Stuxnet, which attacked an Iranian uranium enrichment facility (and some 16,000 computers), causing centrifuges to fail. Iran blamed Israel and the US for its creation.  Flame is also believed to contain an element that was used in Stuxnet. Kaspersky said the Flame malware may have been lurking inside thousands of computers across the Middle East for between five and eight years. The creator of the virus is not yet known. . . . . . The country with the largest number of machines infected by Flame is believed to be Iran, following by the West Bank, and Sudan and Syria after that. Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have also been affected.

Source site: the Times of Israel here. 

_______________________________

In a PDF technical report on the virus,  the University of Budapest gave us this excerpt in its larger report found here

Our first insight suggests that sKyWIper is another info-stealer malware with a modular structure incorporating multiple propagation and attack techniques, but further analysis may discover components with other functionalities. In addition, sKyWIper may have been active for as long as five to eight years, or even more. sKyWIper uses compression and encryption techniques to encode its files. . . . . . . . . . sKyWIper has very advanced functionality to steal information and to propagate. Multiple exploits and propagation methods can be freely configured by the attackers. Information gathering from a large network of infected computers was never crafted as carefully as in sKyWIper. The malware is most likely capable to use all of the computers’ functionalities for its goals. It covers all major possibilities to gather intelligence, including keyboard, screen, microphone, storage devices, network, wifi, Bluetooth, USB and system processes.
The results of our technical analysis support the hypotheses that sKyWIper was developed by a government agency of a nation state with significant budget and effort, and it may be related to cyber warfare activities. sKyWIper is certainly the most sophisticated malware we encountered during our practice; arguably, it is the most complex malware ever found.  

No comments:

Post a Comment