“…Ever since word of the Flame virus first got out the superlatives have come in thick and fast.
Analysts have competed with themselves to describe it as the most complex, the deadliest, largest and most comprehensive virus ever uncovered.
In many ways it is all these things and more.
But does it pose a risk to the average internet user?
The short answer at the moment is no.
Whoever created Flame did it with a very specific agenda – the targeted acquisition of intelligence on very specific networks primarily in the Middle East.
While it is frighteningly capable, it is not particularly infectious.
When organised criminals create malware they often try to make their product as virulent as possible.
The more computers you infect – the bigger pool you get to swim in looking for ways to make money and pilfer data.
Flame is a much stealthier beast.
Most likely the product of a nation state – it has been created to surreptitiously infiltrate designated networks and harvest as much data as possible without being detected.
Once it is inside a system it works at a level of comprehensiveness and sneakiness that has rarely been seen before.
But in the two-five year period Flame is thought have been in existence -
- it has infected hundreds of computers in the Middle East – not millions of computers worldwide…”
(cont..)
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