Iran is under a cyber-attack

In just two years from last international Stuxnet virus attack on its uranium enrichment program, the Iranian energy sector is under attack again. The Stuxnet managed to setback Iran’s nuclear program by several months. This time the virus is called Flame. The code that attacked Iran this time is 650,000 lines long or takes 1.5 miles if printed on paper. It can monitor keystrokes, steal passwords, record conversations, take screen shots of internet sessions and send all these information to a remote “command and control” center. It also tracked cell phone communications. Russian based Kaspersky Lab states that the malware is very powerful and compare it to the previous Stuxnet.

Iran is under increasing international sanctions to abandon its nuclear program. In addition to sanctions, Iran suspects this is also a work of the U.S. and/or Israel. So far both countries neither denied nor admitted the cyber-attack.

Some experts suspect Flame may be predated to Stuxnet and discovered only very recently. Flame is very selective and infected only few machines. This may have allowed the virus to stay uncovered for several years. Iran received help from international experts and “command and control” servers that obtained information have been disabled.