In a blog post for the Cyberdialogue 2012 site, Chris Bronk, a Fellow in Information Technology Policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, writes about the politics of the Flame malware.
First there was Stuxnet, a piece of computer code that is widely believed to have been specifically designed to instruct computers in the Iranian nuclear enrichment program to damage centrifuges necessary to produce fissile material and identified in 2010. Next, in 2011, came Duqu, a computer worm which appears to hold the capacity to remove and delete data from infected computer hosts. Now, the computer security community has its latest item of study, Flame, yet another piece of software designed to purloin data, perhaps including via the clandestine operation of onboard web cams found in many of the world’s personal computers.
Over the coming days and weeks, security experts will deconstruct Flame and explain what it can and can’t do. This work ongoing, it is also important to consider the politics of Flame, as they matter as much if not more. I suggest considering seven interrelated points on Flame that stretch from its discovery to the blitz of awareness regarding its existence.
To read the full post, see here.