The Flame virus is old news by now. But if you haven’t already heard of it, then all you need to know is that it’s the most complex virus ever created. It has the ability to take full control of infected computers – including the use of webcams and the recording of audio conversations through microphones.
It’s been labelled as one of the world’s most dangerous cyber-warfare weapons. But fortunately, it’s only been used to target computers in the Middle East, including a suspicious number of PCs that are closely connected to Iran’s nuclear development program.
This has led many people to point fingers at Israel and the United States. After all, Israel has the most to lose if Iran develops nuclear weapons.
Despite the Flame virus being over a month old, PC security experts still haven’t unravelled its coding. Typically, it takes only a few hours – if that – for PC security experts to reverse engineer an ordinary virus. The fact that it has taken the entire computer security community several weeks to figure out Flame is significant.
While PC antivirus software companies focus on creating a cure for Flame, others are tracking down the criminals behind the virus. And apparently, they’re not too far behind catching the crooks.
Since Flame is so complicated, we knew the people behind it would be pretty smart. But thus far, they’ve been able to keep the best internet trackers in the world off their scent.
How have they avoided being captured? Well, with PC security experts not far behind, the cyber crooks have made an extra effort to clean up their tracks. To do that, they’ve been connecting directly to infected computers and wiping these systems clean of any sign of the virus.
Those in the PC security industry suspect this is being done in order to prevent people from realizing that any of their data was stolen in the first place.
I guess a good workman always cleans up his tools. With Flame, however, that adage becomes more frightening than ever. The team of cyber criminals is also suspected to be responsible for Stuxnet and Duqu, both of which were linked to the Obama administration and Israel in a recent book. With the hackers behind Flame working frantically to remove links to the virus, it’s clear to see that the hackers have a lot to lose if they are discovered.
To protect yourself from the Flame virus and any further antivirus attacks, download Comodo Antivirus today.