"Flame" Spy Virus May Be of U.S./Israeli Origin

Zeren

New member
Aug 6, 2011
394
0
0
Ewyx said:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html

Grats US on going into another war.
They won't go to war again so soon. The people won't stand for another useless war when they are still in the middle of one.
 

Dryk

New member
Dec 4, 2011
981
0
0
I'm looking forward to someone unleashing the plague in their next attempt to quell Iran
 

rapidoud

New member
Feb 1, 2008
547
0
0
So what you're saying is the USA is in fact the dystopian-creating fascist nation of all the sci-fi films, intent for world domination/

Huh, we all saw it coming.
 

Doom972

New member
Dec 25, 2008
2,312
0
0
It's very probable, but I doubt these anonymous officials know what they're talking about, even if they actually exist.

BTW, see what happens if you replace "U.S./Israeli" with "EA" in the title.

On an unrelated note, an anonymous official source told me I'm now the supreme ruler of everything.
 

Ewyx

New member
Dec 3, 2008
375
0
0
Zeren said:
Ewyx said:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html

Grats US on going into another war.
They won't go to war again so soon. The people won't stand for another useless war when they are still in the middle of one.
I was actually pointing out the hypocrisy that if the US does something, it's considered fine, but if someone else would do the same to the US, it would be considered an act of war, that's all.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
8,407
0
0
IamLEAM1983 said:
Mumorpuger said:
HACK THE PLANET!!!
My rig's got a P6 chip and a custom BIOS. Whatchu gonna do, huh?!
give you a chernobyl virus and fry your PC. duh. About time that one came back to life really, we have too many dumb people with internet access.

Wasnt the virus origins already clear like 2 weeks ago? why the late "news"?
Doom972 said:
It's very probable, but I doubt these anonymous officials know what they're talking about, even if they actually exist.
i see what you did there.....
 

Valanthe

New member
Sep 24, 2009
655
0
0
Findlebob said:
Can someone please tell me what that picture is from?
It's from the movie "Hackers," a film that's often laughed at by computer experts for just how much basic information it got wrong, but is still a pretty cool movie (For its time) regardless.
 

Exocet

Pandamonium is at hand
Dec 3, 2008
726
0
0
Oh come on, this virus is clearly a diversion, a way to probe how the public would react to cyber-warfare being used covertly, and a way to test out cyber-defenses.

If a "spy" virus were to be used to slow down military installations, why the hell would they disguise it as a windows update, and make it able to record Skype calls?
If there indeed a military/intelligence grade virus going around, it's probably not something that easily caught, it would probably not even try to masquerade as a program, it would just trick the computer in question into thinking it isn't there, and not taking up any space.

Pff, windows update...You can do better people.
 

Elementary - Dear Watson

RIP Eleuthera, I will miss you
Nov 9, 2010
2,980
0
0
EDIT: Completly rewritten for tone... first one made me sound like a proper arragant nred! :S

Be carefull with the wording of your report! Electronic Warfare is everything to do with the electromagnetic spectrum (RADAR, LASER, IR, UV, Jamming etc), cyber warfare is a different kettle of fish!!
 

Elate

New member
Nov 21, 2010
584
0
0
My computer HAS been running rather slow, in fact, just 10 minutes ago it crawled to start up. Baring in mind this is a high performance gaming rig...

SHUT, DOWN, EVERYTHING!
 

TheAmazingHobo

New member
Oct 26, 2010
505
0
0
Exocet said:
Oh come on, this virus is clearly a diversion, a way to probe how the public would react to cyber-warfare being used covertly, and a way to test out cyber-defenses.

If a "spy" virus were to be used to slow down military installations, why the hell would they disguise it as a windows update, and make it able to record Skype calls?
If there indeed a military/intelligence grade virus going around, it's probably not something that easily caught, it would probably not even try to masquerade as a program, it would just trick the computer in question into thinking it isn't there, and not taking up any space.

Pff, windows update...You can do better people.
I think you slightly misunderstand what Flame represents, simply as an achievement in Software Engineering.

It ran undetected for at least two years.
It utilized cryptographic techniques that have never been used before in the wild and kind of require a specialized Phd to even explain properly.
Its ability to record Skype calls was due to its ability to just turn hardware (such as mircrophones) on and off at will and then covertly send the information back to its operators.
It also did not technically "disquise itself as a windows update", it just used the process of windows update (which is incredibly hard to manipulate) to gain further system privileges in already compromised systems

I´m sorry, as cool as it would be, people can´t do better at the moment.
Actually, most experts where kind of blown away that we can do AS GOOD as this at the moment.

Which, in turn, also informs why it is so plausible to blame America for Flame.
Because the list of organizations who can pull off something like this is kind of short.
 

Darks63

New member
Mar 8, 2010
1,562
0
0
A virus which sought out middle eastern computer in order to spy on them has a possible Us or Israeli Origin?
I really hope this news didnt surprise anyone cause when this story first broke its what i figure was going on.
 

cobra_ky

New member
Nov 20, 2008
1,643
0
0
Richard A. Kiernan said:
The whole thing about the Flame virus is that it underpins why you shouldn't run your secret computer stuff on a commercially-available operating system like Microsoft Windows. Even Linux, notoriously virus-proof as it is, isn't a good alternative, short of running it on ultra-obscure processor architectures which nobody's going to try to exploit.
so....governments should be developing their own top-secret proprietary operating systems then?
 

popa_qwerty

New member
Dec 21, 2010
122
0
0
Doom972 said:
It's very probable, but I doubt these anonymous officials know what they're talking about, even if they actually exist.

BTW, see what happens if you replace "U.S./Israeli" with "EA" in the title.

On an unrelated note, an anonymous official source told me I'm now the supreme ruler of everything.
The funny thing is I clicked the headline while only seeing "Flame" Virus U.S./Israeli Origin and was thinking that U.S./Israeli has officially deemed Origin a Virus
Hay A guy can dream cant I.