Almost every day, new malicious programs appear in the world that infect computers of private users and government agencies. Most of the viruses can be dealt with by special protective programs. Yet sometimes even experienced antivirus vendors are amazed at the skill of attackers. In early 2012, experts discovered one of the most powerful spyware programs that infected computers in several countries in the Middle East.
During a study initiated by the International Telecommunication Union, Kaspersky Lab identified malware that has been used for cyber espionage for several years. The virus allows you to steal data about systems under attack, about files stored on a computer, contact information of users, audio recordings of conversations. The object of the attack was often the information displayed on the monitors.
The program, named Flame, is similar in principle to the Duqu and Stuxnet viruses. Earlier, these viruses have already disabled equipment at one of the Iranian uranium enrichment plants. The Iranian side accused the United States and Israel of distributing malware. Some European enterprises were also attacked by Trojans.
At a press conference, Kaspersky Lab expert Alexander Gostev spoke about the details of the new virus detection. It all started in April 2012, when Iran announced the disappearance of data from the computers of one of the oil companies. The database was clearly deliberately deleted. The Kaspersky Lab, which joined the investigation, found traces of the presence of malicious software with many functions, according to the CNews Internet portal. Experts have recorded more than 500 computers infected with the new virus in Iran and neighboring states.
As reported by Lenta. Ru, the Flame virus is a set of tools for organizing a computer attack, including twenty functional modules. Malicious software has been operating in many countries in the Middle East, not bypassing either computers of ordinary users or equipment of government organizations. Interestingly, the virus does not have a built-in function to steal data on users' bank accounts. Kaspersky Lab specialists have not yet been able to reliably identify the source of the application.
