Flame virus 'much bigger than Stuxnet'

[didymus]

Yahoo!/Agence France Presse:

Flame virus 'much bigger than Stuxnet’

A Russian computer firm has discovered a new computer virus with unprecedented destructive potential that chiefly targets Iran and could be used as a “cyberweapon” by the West and Israel. Kaspersky Lab, one of the world’s biggest producers of anti-virus software, said its experts discovered the virus – known as Flame – during an investigation prompted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Iran appears to have been the main target of the attack and the announcement comes just a month after the Islamic Republic said it halted the spread of a data-deleting virus targeting computer servers in its oil sector.

Kaspersky said the virus was several times larger than the Stuxnet worm that was discovered in 2010 and targeted the Iranian nuclear programme, reportedly at the behest of Western or Israeli security agencies.
It said the main task of Flame is cyber espionage, meaning it steals information from infected machines including documents, screenshots and even audio recordings. It then sends the data to servers all over the world.

Flame is “actively being used as a cyberweapon attacking entities in several countries,” Kaspersky said in a statement late on Monday. Flame is “one of the most advanced and complete attack-toolkits ever discovered.”
“The complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious programme exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date,” it added.
The origin of the Stuxnet worm has never been made clear but suspicion has fallen on the United States and Israel which both accuse Iran of seeking to build an atomic weapon.

We better brace for viruses like Stuxnet and Flame to be used on us.
One problem with weapons like UAVs and and viruses prove their effectiveness others can replicate them fairly easily.