The FLAME Virus

Wikipedia Entry

Nasty piece of malware that is reported being used at targeted Middle Eastern Countries. It can be spread over LAN links or USB drive. It has the ability to record audio, screenshots, keyboard activity and network traffic. The program records Skype conversations and can turn an infected computer with Bluetooth into a collector of contact information from other Bluetooth enabled devices. The information is sent to one of several receiving servers and the program waits for further instructions from those servers.

According to estimates by Kaspersky in May 2012, Flame had infected approximately 1,000 machines, with victims including governmental organizations, educational institutions and private individuals. At that time the countries most affected were Iran, Israel, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, with a "huge majority of targets" within Iran. Flame has also been reported in Europe and North America.[ Flame supports a "kill" command which wipes all traces of the malware from the computer. Flame stopped operating after its public exposure, and the "kill" command was sent.

Sounds like the making of a movie thriller. Reportedly linked to the Stuxnet malware program, this product’s origins are unknown. Because of what it does and its complexity some nation-state is likely behind it.

Security firms have not been warning of any direct risk to average Internet users. Sophos' Graham Cluley noted that Flame has only been discovered in a few hundred computers. “Certainly, it's pretty insignificant when you compare it to the 600,000 Mac computers which were infected by the Flashback malware earlier this year,” Cluley wrote in a blog post.

So should you worry about infection from this virus on your computer? Probably not. It has been primarily directed towards government systems. Microsoft has issued a fix for this and most security companies have included a fix for it as well. Keep your Microsoft patches up to date and of course your virus/malware definition tables and you should be fine.