While most Americans enjoyed a long holiday weekend, researchers in the security community were working around the clock to unravel the mysteries of one of the most intimidating pieces of malware code ever found.
Known by the names Flame, Flamer, and sKyWIper, the malware is significantly more complex then either Stuxnet or Duqu — and it appears to be targeting the same part of the world, namely the Middle East.
Preliminary reports from various security researchers indicate that Flame likely is a cyberwarfare weapon designed by a nation-state to conduct highly targeted espionage. Using a modular architecture, the malware is capable of performing a wide variety of malicious functions — including spying on users’ keystrokes, documents, and spoken conversations.