Beware The CyberFlame

Malicious, it is and powerful, capable of hiding itself, and altering itself on command.  And of gathering data meant to be shielded from all but those given especial access through virtue of their top secret and expert technological status in government, in the belief that their own malicious intentions can remain hidden from the world at large.

Iran's National Computer Emergency Response Team has become aware that a sleeper virus of powerful proportions and complexity has been nestled comfortably for years within their computer systems controlling their nuclear program.  Evidently some state actor with the precisely talented minds of technology specialists at their command has been able to infiltrate their innermost state secrets.

The newly-detected but long-installed Cyber weapon bears resemblance to later, powerfully effective worms that were deployed and detected far quicker, for the same purpose; to destabilize and to destroy.  Flame, which is the name of the newly-detected malware, is cousin to Stuxnet, itself a close relative of Duqu.

The Russian computer researchers on cyber security invited to investigate the incidence of the discovery of Flame have detected its conspiratorial presence in countries other than Iran; they have traced its presence in the Palestinian territories, as well as Sudan and Syria.  And, oh yes, in Israel.  In Israel.  Well, no one knows which state controls the cyber weapon.

Experts at Kaspersky Lab in Russia and Hungary's laboratory of Cryptography and System Security, after having spent considerable time and effort studying Flame, cannot quite understand its instructions and function other than, presumably, data theft.

Meanwhile, back in Israel there have been some rather interesting partial revelations.  Perhaps best left unsaid, but pride and the very human need to take ownership of the exceptional, along with issuing warnings to those who broadcast threats may be responsible for the revelations.  Which have been divulged not from a discreet, unknown source.

None other than the Vice-Prime Minister, Moshe Ya'alon is reported to have hinted that the malware in question may be a devoted creature of Israeli practical design.  "Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a meaningful threat - it is reasonable he would take various measures, including this one."

"Israel has been blessed with being a state rich in top level high-tech.  These tools that we take pride in open up various possibilities for us."  Not clearly transparent, not opaque, neither oblique.

And, as further clarification, a representative for Kaspersky in Israel added that the malware is capable of information collection in heretofore unseen methods.  "The program can transfer files, send screenshots, give keyboard typing patterns and even record audio files."  Controlled through a remote computer, it operates on instruction.  

 "That is why it is hard to detect, because it is not active all of the time.  This virus is so sophisticated that it can change [its own] characteristics and develop in accordance with instructions.  It is a masterpiece of programming, not something that a bored student or some guy, talented as he may be, could do."

Strange and mysterious occurrences.