Post date: Jun 06, 2012 12:29:13 PM
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JUNE 6, 2012) (REUTERS) - Eugene Kaspersky, whose lab discovered the Flame virus that has attacked computers in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East, said on Wednesday (June 6) only a global effort could stop a new era of "cyber terrorism".
"It's not cyber war, it's cyber terrorism and I'm afraid it's just the beginning of the game ... I'm afraid it will be the end of the world as we know it," Kaspersky told reporters at a Tel Aviv University Cyber Security Conference.
Eugene Kaspersky, Chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Labs voices fear that 'cyber-terror' will bring an end to the world as we know it.
News of the Flame virus surfaced last week. Researchers said technical evidence suggests it was built for the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran's nuclear programme in 2010.
In recent months U.S. officials have become more open about the work of the United States and Israel on Stuxnet, which targeted Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
The West suspects Iran is developing atomic weapons. Tehran denies this, says it is enriching uranium only for civilian use.
Kaspersky named the United States, Britain, Israel, China, Russia and possibly India, Japan and Romania as countries with the ability to develop such software, but stopped short of saying which nation he thought was behind Flame.
When asked whether Israel was part of the solution or part of the problem regarding cyber war, Kaspersky said: "Both."
Kaspersky said governments must cooperate to stop such attacks, as they have done with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Operating systems must be redesigned, he added.
"The only way to protect us against cyber weapons and cyber wars is international cooperation, same (as) what was done with, for example, nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons," he said.
Security experts say Flame is one of the most sophisticated pieces of malicious software so far discovered. They are still investigating the virus, which they believe was released specifically to infect computers in Iran and across the Middle East.
"We were really scared because it's (Flame) a very, very serious project, very professional, and it's just another prove that cyber weapon is extremely dangerous and it just proves that we have to do something against cyber weapons and cyber sabotage," he said.
Kaspersky said malware like Flame and Stuxnet have a limited lifetime and said undiscovered viruses could be out there.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, addressing the conference, said that Israel is striving to remain at the forefront of this emerging electronic weapon.
"We in the security system as well as on the national level, deal very seriously with the issue of cyber and have real intention to bring Israel to the front of the world progress, both in the field of cyber protection and in understanding its other meanings," Barak said.