By Nitasha Tiku 6/11/12 11:29am

Flame I'm Gonna Live Forever

Cue the Conspiracy Theories: Parts of Flame Virus Are Nearly Identical to Stuxnet

It’s going to be even harder for President Obama to distance himself from Stuxnet now. As Reuters reports, Kaspersky Lab, a leading computer security firm in Moscow, has discovered that portions of code in the newer Flame virus are “nearly identical” to code in Stuxnet, the cyber weapon reportedly used by the United States and Israel to disrupt Iran’s nuclear initiatives.

This new discovery is likely to fuel theories from security experts that Stuxnet was part of an American-led cyber program “that is still active in the Middle East and perhaps other parts of the world,” says Reuters. Not the best way to win those hearts and minds! Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 5/14/12 12:36pm

Mac Attack

He doesn't feel so good. (Wikimedia Commons)

Firm Still Worked Up About Apple’s ‘Really Vulnerable’ OS [Updated]

Here’s an interesting little news item: The firm that’s been on Apple’s back about the increasing threat of malware and other digital nasties to the Mac OS claims to have been “invited” to help the company improve its security. (No wonder they’ve been harping so hard on Mac vulnerabilities.)

Kaspersky Lab (which makes antivirus software) was all over the Mac Flashback botnet, tracking its rise and releasing the first removal tool, then treating the whole thing as an argument for, you guessed it, antivirus software. Now CTO Nikolai Grebenniko has dished to Computing, calling the Mac operating system “really vulnerable” and announcing that ”and Apple recently invited us to improve its security. We’ve begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it.”

He also predicts there’ll be iOS-targeted malware in “the next year or so.”  Read More