This week is the first anniversary of the sophisticated computer attack on Iran and several other Middle Eastern countries. The apparent goal of the attack, given that the primary targets happened to be Iran’s networks linked to their nuclear centrifuges. When the attack occurred, it was clear from the start that whoever designed the worm was a “state player”. This worm was primarily a data stealing virus nicknamed, “Flame”.

Some experts claim that the worm has been in computers for as many as five years, dormant, waiting for some unknown predetermined point in time to strike and that day, strike it did. Russian internet security experts say that “Flame” is designed to collect sensitive information off of infected hard drives and also to delete that hard drive. Flame gained access to computers in various countries including Iran, Syria and even Saudia Arab. There were apparently over 600 specific targets of the Flame worm. Businesses, colleges, individuals and government systems all was park of the attack.

Experts at Kaspersky Labs claim that the complexity of this malicious worm exceeds all other menaces that are known. The chief expert on malware at Kaspersky labs said after examining the worm that this one is without a doubt shaped by a known state actor. It is said that those behind this attack were highly organized and well-funded. There may have been a connection to hacking incident involving the Iranian oil Industry.

Copies of this malicious worm have been found in computers from Hungary to the United Arab Emirates. While speculation can sometimes be fruitless, here’s what we know about the Superworm. It was highly organized and well-funded. It was aimed specifically at infiltrating Iran’s nuclear program and halting or at the very least slowing down their progress. Some lay the whole blame on one nation who vowed to protect themselves from a Middle East bent on eliminating Israel from the countries in the region.

It does seem that the speculation meets enough fact to claim that Israel was responsible for the attack, although to date they haven’t claimed responsibility for it.

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