Two years ago there was Stuxnet, a virus that targeted Iranian uranium-enrichment infrastructure. Now Flame, a mutating piece of malware, is continuing to spread, infecting more than 1,000 Windows-powered computers across the Middle East. It’s centered on Iran, but has also spread to Israel and Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and even Sudan.
Flame is a huge virus — 20 megabytes of various modules, databases, and varying levels of encryption. It’s 40 times larger than Stuxnet, and it’s been operating for at least two years without having been detected. So far researchers have a pretty good idea of what it’s designed to do — steal and transmit information from infected machines — but because it contains so much code, it will take years to fully analyze. So far we know it can activate a computer’s built-in microphone to record Skype conversations, siphon contact information from an address book, and transmit screenshots of user activity.
