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Report: Israel

Vice-PM Ya'alon hints that Israel behind Flame worm

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon has hinted that Israel is behind the “Flame” computer worm, discovered to have infected computers across the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Reuters/John Adkisson
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Its similarities to the Stuxnet virus, which attacked Iranian industrial infrastructures in 2010, drew suspicions that the worm originated in Israel.

Ya’alon’s commented to Israeli radio that such measures were reasonable for anyone who views Iran as a threat and praised Israel’s technological capabilities. But no official confirmation has been given as to the bug’s origin.

Experts from Kaspersky and Symantec internet security firms reported Monday that the bug has been active since 2010, and is capable of recording data on infected computers down to a single keystroke.

The worm is not designed to be constantly active, requiring remote control for specific tasks from a large, state-level system, making it extremely difficult to detect.

Experts called it a “masterpiece of programming”.

Apart from Iran, the worm has been detected in systems in the West Bank, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates as well as further afield in Hungary, Austria, Hong Kong and Russia.

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