PLANK JUNE 1, 2012
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Given the size and complexity of Flame, the cyber weapon that forced Iran to cut off its oil ministry rigs from the Internet this week, it seems safe to say that it was a state-sponsored attack, with the United States and Israel the primary suspects.
But the most interesting thing about Flame may be that it's simply a precursor for many more viruses like it. The Pentagon’s new cyber security strategy, first reported Thursday by Ellen Nakashima in the Washington Post, seems to suggest as much. At the center of the strategy, also known as Plan X, is a five-year, $110 million research program sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a Pentagon division that focuses on experimental efforts.
The strategy reveals that DARPA will be increasingly shifting its cyber operations from intelligence-gathering to offensive cyber capabilities. To that end, it will be reaching out to private sector firms, universities, and even computer game companies, to help foster creative breakthroughs in developing highly-effective attacks.
Indeed, there are already some suggestions that such collaborations were involved in the creation of Flame: According to a report released Monday by Kaspersky Lab, a Russian computer security firm, the virus (which can record keystrokes, capture screenshots, and record conversations using computers’ internal microphones) was written using gamer code. It's possibly even the same language — which game programmers like because its simple and stable — as many popular games for mobile phones. It turns out Angry Birds are a lot more pernicious when they're working for the government.
7 comments
Yeah, well, I can't help wondering what hostile cyber attack has been making the TNR site so difficult to negotiate these last few years. An early test version of the stuxnet virus from the Atlantic Monthly, maybe?
- ironyroad
June 1, 2012 at 7:59pm
Won't it be ironic when the Iranians retaliate in kind?
- poldpf
June 2, 2012 at 12:08pm
It seems conceivable to envisage a digital version of the nuclear arms race with the difference being that the level of deterrence is lower, the upshot being that belligerents sling these viruses around to the point that the Interwebs become completely unusable. Wouldn't that be grand!
- AaronW
June 2, 2012 at 7:14pm
As a programmer and gamer, I'm calling shenanigans on this report about "gamer code". Many popular games for mobile phones are being written in Java now. There are SDKs for C and C++ to compile natively to mobile computing devices as well. Microsoft's big language is C#, which can be used for all of its computing devices, including mobile phones. But it's not solely restricted to games either. S h e n a n i g a n s.
- GSpinks
June 3, 2012 at 2:19pm
GSpinks - I was also wondering what "gamer code" was. Unless the Iranians had say a Lua engine installed on their machines (unlikely) I can't think of much that could be called "Gamer". Unless you know, it kept score or counted lives left or something :) And while it will be ironic when the Iranians retaliate in kind, I imagine it will also be rather tragic, as it would be casus belli if they did anything significant.
- Nari224
June 3, 2012 at 8:08pm
Every weapon ever developed in human history has eventually been copied, modified, and redeployed by the other side. That goes for everything from the atlatl to atomic bombs. And it will apply to drones and this program as well. It's a simple fact that reverse engineering is easier than ordinary engineering. Just remember that if you have any trace of triumphalism in your current thinking. Some day, this stuff will be turned on us.
- gwcross
June 4, 2012 at 3:06pm
There was a LUA engine in the Flame virus! http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/346317/20120529/flame-malware-skywiper-kaspersky-sophos-crysys.htm Is that what they meant by "gamer code"?
- mrheckman
June 4, 2012 at 7:55pm