Flame virus created by U.S. and Israel sources say, Iran is target

The Washington Post reports that Flame, an extremely sophisticated virus which was first discovered in Iranian oil refineries, is the brainchild of U.S. and Israeli efforts to slow Iran's nuclear program. This information comes from several Western officials who purportedly have knowledge of the project, but wish to remain anonymous.

Despite the report's veiled sources, Flame's U.S. origins aren't necessarily a surprise. Earlier this month, the New York Times shed light uponOperation: Olympic Games, a U.S. project which utilized other sophisticated viruses known as Duquand Stuxnet. These virus targeted Iranian SCADA systems, allowing their creators to access, gather intelligence and even control certain aspects of Iran's nuclear and oil refining facilities. 

Security researchers recently discovered Stuxnet code within Flame -- an unofficial confirmation that the creators of Stuxnet (i.e. U.S. government) were also behind the virus. After this discovery was made, the virus began to self-destruct, hastily removing itself from infected computers as though it were taking cues from a spy novel.

Flame wowed security researchers with its incredible sophistication. The 20MB virus carried a payload which could be transmitted through spoofing Windows Updates, allowing it to infect even non-compromised computers on the same network. The creators used what is believed to be an unknown MD5 collision attack to forge Microsoft's digital signature on a fraudulent certificate, an achievement which was described by security researchers as the holy grail of malware writers.

Flame also has modules which could utilize microphones and web cameras, log keystrokes, collect screen shots and allow it to propagate via removable media (i.e. USB thumb drives), allowing it to be introduced into sensitive networks isolated from the public. It would even use Bluetooth to send commands to other computers, providing a bevy of vectors for infecting, monitoring and controlling nearby workstations.

NSA won't reveal how many Americans have been spied on

Last month a pair of US Senators inquired as to how many people within the country had been spied upon by the National Security Agency in the wake of updates to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 2008. Getting a straightforward answer proved impossible as Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall were told that such information wouldviolate the privacy of US persons.

The question was reportedly passed around through the intelligence bureaucracy before landing on the desk of I. Charges McCullough, III, Inspector General of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the nominal head of the 16 U.S. spy agencies.

Danger Room acquired a letter dated June 15 from McCullough to both senators where he thanked them for the inquiry and goes on to explain that the request was passed along to NSA Inspector General George Ellard as he would be able to answer the question in a more timely manner.

Ellard concluded that obtaining such an estimate was beyond the capacity of his office and to bring in additional resources needed to get a solid answer would “impede the NSA’s mission.” NSA leadership agreed that collecting such data would itself violate the privacy of US persons.

“All that Senator Udall and I are asking for is a ballpark estimate of how many Americans have been monitored under this law, and it is disappointing that the Inspectors General cannot provide it,” Wyden told Danger Room. “If no one will even estimate how many Americans have had their communications collected under this law then it is all the more important that Congress act to close the ‘back door searches’ loophole, to keep the government from searching for Americans’ phone calls and emails without a warrant.”

Wired points out that the FISA Amendment Act allows the NSA to no longer require probable cause to intercept phone calls, text messages or emails so long as one person in the string of communication is “reasonably” believed to be outside of the US.

“If the FISA Amendments Act is not susceptible to oversight in this way, it should be repealed, not renewed,” said Steve Aftergood, a secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists.

AMD-branded memory coming to the US

Advanced Micro Devices has announced that they will be bringing company-branded memory modules to the United States. The brand will be introduced with two strategic launch partners: Patriot Memory and VisionTek.

AMD has been supplying and validating memory for Radeon graphics cards for years and they feel that jumping into the volatile system memory market is a clear opportunity for the company. They have used the AMD OverDrive performance optimization tool to test and optimize DRAM in conjunction with their APUs, CPUs, GPUs and chipset platforms. Such insight is now helping them create memory modules for other manufacturers as well.

AMD hopes to take the guesswork out of selecting memory by introducing three different performance tiers. All modules will be available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities. The Entertainment level will feature 1333MHz and 1600MHz speeds designed for quiet home theater PC applications. AMD’s Performance category will support speeds up to 1600MHz in matched pairs with low latency. The top-end Radeon Edition modules will run at 1866MHz and are tuned, tested and certified for specific AMD platforms.

AMD Memory will be available through major retails including Amazon.com, Bestbuy.ca, Fry’s, Memory Express, Micro Center, NCIX, Newegg, Tiger Direct, VIP Computers (UK) and others in the near future. There’s no word on module pricing but given the state of the market, we don’t expect them to carry much of a premium (if any) over existing kits. AMD has been selling similar kits in Japandating back to August, albeit under different performance categories.