According to the experts at the Kaspersky Lab Company, the new virus detected on the Mideast is the most aggressive it has seen and the worm appears designed to gather intelligence information on infected computers. Kaspersky experts have dubbed the new virus the “Flame”, adding it is the “most sophisticated cyber weapon ever released”.

According to media reports, it has infected computers in Iran, as well as in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon and it contains components that were seen in the Stuxnet worm.

The Stuxnet worm attacked Iranian computers primarily, back in 2010, but the experts feel this latest worm, the Flame, is far more advanced than anything they have seen in the past.

Kaspersky’s chief malware expert Vitaly Kamluk was quoted by BBC as stating that over 600 computers have already been hit, including private, businesses, academic institutions and government.

Symantec experts indicate Flame has probably been operational for quite some time, perhaps two years, and in all likelihood, an “organized well-funded group of people working to a clear set of directives” stands behind it. Symantec experts add that some of the files found in the “extremely complex” coding also appeared in the hacking attack perpetrated against computer in the Iranian oil ministry last month.

Unlike the Kaspersky assessment that the virus has struck primarily in the countries mentioned, Symantec reports Flame in Hungary, Russia, Hong Kong, the UAE and Austria.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)