Source: BBC News, 28th-29th May 2012
Iran says it has developed tools that can defend against the sophisticated cyber attack tool known as Flame. The country is believed to have been hit hard by the malicious programme which infiltrates networks in order to steal sensitive data.
Professor Alan Woodward: “This is an extremely advanced attack. It is more like a toolkit for compiling different code based weapons than a single tool. It can steal everything from the keys you are pressing to what is on your screen to what is being said near the machine. It also has some very unusual data stealing features including reaching out to any Bluetooth enabled device nearby to see what it can steal.
Just like Stuxnet, this malware can spread by USB stick, i.e. it doesn’t need to be connected to a network, although it has that capability as well. This wasn’t written by some spotty teenager in his/her bedroom. It is large, complicated and dedicated to stealing data whilst remaining hidden for a long time.”