Iranian Oil Industry Battled Complex Flame Virus Last Month

The Iranian oil industry reported that last month computer technicians battled a complicated computer virus. According to Iranian officials, the virus launched a data siphoning attack on key oil industry networks. To fight the complicated virus officials cut Internet links between the Iranian Oil Ministry, oil rigs, and the hub for the country's crude oil exports.

This week the Iranian officials have said that the virus that attacked computers in the oil industry was the Flame malware. Security experts have said that Flame is so powerful that not only can it steal data and files from computer networks you can listen in on computer users. While it's still unknown where Flame originated, suspicious fingers have been pointed at Israel already.

A disruption of the oil industry within Iran could have serious consequences not only for Iran itself, but also for many other countries since Iran is one the world's top oil exporters. The origins of Flame are unknown, but some experts you the malware is a technological leap and note that it shares the same high-level engineering as Stuxnet. Stuxnet is believed by some to have been the work of Israeli intelligence. So far, Israel has never confirmed or denied involvement with Stuxnet and other viruses.

[via Philly.com]