Meet ‘Flame,’ the Massive Spy Malware Infiltrating Iranian Computers

Wired: Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab say they have discovered a complex piece of cyber-espionage malware infecting systems in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, the Israeli Occupied Territories, and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa countries. The researchers say the malware, known as “Flame,” may have been created by the same people behind Stuxnet and Duqu as part of the same state-sponsored campaign. “Stuxnet and Duqu belonged to a single chain of attacks, which raised cyberwar-related concerns worldwide,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. “The Flame malware looks to be another phase in this war, and it’s important to understand that such cyber weapons can easily be used against any country.”

Kaspersky describes Flame as “one of the most complex threats ever discovered” and noted that it avoided detection for at least two years, despite its large size (20MB). “It took us half-a-year to analyze Stuxnet,” said Kaspersky’s Alexander Gostev. “This is 20-times more complicated. It will take us 10 years to fully understand everything.”