Virus informático ‘Flame‘ aumenta tensões políticas ligadas a cibertaques

New information about computer viruses shows how countries may be lining up to fight a cyberwar. The New York Times reported that former President George W. Bush and President Obama both authorized computer attacks against Iran, culminating in the Stuxnet virus, which targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, a United Nations agency raised alarms about another virus, dubbed "Flame," which may also have been designed for use against Iran.

The Flame virus was highlighted in a cybersecurity alert issued by the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU. Marco Obiso, the ITU's cybersecurity coordinator, says his organization noticed some malicious software spreading around the Middle East and asked Eugene Kaspersky, a Russian security consultant, to have his lab study the malware.

"There was this indication that there was this malware that was wiping out information in the Middle East," Obiso says. "So we asked Kaspersky Lab to further investigate, and then they discovered the Flame."

The ITU alert said the discovery of the Flame virus underscores the need for global collaboration to tackle cybersecurity threats.

Clear enough, but some skeptics are taking a more conspiratorial view of this story. They cite several points:

The ITU had never before issued a cybersecurity alert like this.
As a U.N. agency, the ITU has often reflected the interests of Russia and China, its two most influential members; the ITU has never called attention to cyberthreats emanating from those two countries.
The virus that got the ITU's attention, Flame, apparently targeted Iran, as Stuxnet also did. Suspicion immediately fell on the U.S. and Israel as the creators. [...]

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