Discovery of New Computer Virus Used as "Cyber-Weapon"

The company, one of the world's leading producers of anti-virus, said in a statement it had discovered the virus, known as Flame, during an investigation launched by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The virus is currently used as a cyber-weapon in a series of countries, Kaspersky Lab said in statement released Monday night, saying he was employed for the purpose of "cyber spying".

Complexity and functionality of the program recently detected beyond those of all other cyber threats known to date, the company said. Thus, Flame is twenty times larger than Stuxnet, a virus detected in 2010 and used against Iran's nuclear program, says she.

According to Kaspersky, Flame can steal important information, not only contained in computers, information systems referred, archived documents, contacts, users and even audio recordings of conversations.

The company does not say against whom the virus is used, but states that it began investigating after a series of incidents with another virus, yet unknown, which suppressed information on computers in the region of West Asia.

According to Western media, Flame was used to attack the Iranian Oil Ministry and the main oil terminal of Iran.Preliminary findings indicate that the malware was "in kind" for over two years, since March 2010, says Kaspersky Lab.

After the Stuxnet virus and where you can admire, a similar program Flame marks a new stage in cyber warfare, and it is important to understand that such cyberarmes can easily be used against any country, said Yevgeny Kaspersky, CEO Kaspersky Lab.