- ‘Flame’ bug has been used to hack into Iran computers
- Trojan superbug 100 times bigger than most forms of malicious software
The United Nations is set to issue an urgent warning to guard against the most powerful computer virus ever unleashed amid fears it could be used to bring countries to a standstill.
In what was being seen last night as the dawn of a new era in cyber warfare, UN computer security chief Marco Obiso said: ‘This is the most serious warning we have ever put out.’
He was speaking after it was revealed that a massive superbug had been used to hack into computers in Iran.
Israel did little to dispute claims yesterday that it was behind the clandestine online assault.
The sophisticated spyware – said to be about 100 times the size of most malicious software – also hacked other machines in the Middle East, including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt, but Iran appeared to be the primary target, according to a Russian Internet security firm.
Mr. Obiso, cyber security coordinator for the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, said the warning will underline the danger the virus represents to the critical infrastructure of member nations.
Dubbed ‘Flame’, the Trojan bug worms its way into computer systems and reportedly turns infected machines into listening devices.
It can activate a computer’s audio system to eavesdrop on Skype calls or office chatter, take screenshots or log keystrokes and even suck information from Bluetooth-enabled phones left nearby.
‘The complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious programme exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date.
‘It pretty much redefines the notion of cyber war and cyber espionage,’ said Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab ZAO.
The company’s conclusion that the superbug was crafted at the behest of a national government fuelled claims that Flame was part of an Israeli-backed campaign of electronic sabotage aimed at archrival Iran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility some 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the capital, Tehran, Iran
THE MOST COMPLEX ‘CYBER WEAPON’ OF ALL TIME – WHAT FLAME DOES
The virus contains about 20 times as much code as Stuxnet, which attacked an Iranian uranium enrichment facility, causing centrifuges to fail.
It has about 100 times as much code as a typical virus designed to steal financial information, Kaspersky Labs said.
Flame can gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on PC microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and log instant messaging chats.
He said there was evidence to suggest the code was commissioned by the same nation or nations that were behind Stuxnet and Duqu, which were built on a common platform.
