Flame virus receives self-destruct command

About two weeks ago security researchers announced the discovery of Flame, a sophisticated cyber weapon more complex and capable than the Stuxnet worm. The virus targeted Middle Eastern countries and remained undetected for years, but upon its discovery the authors of the virus have issued a command to completely remove Flame from the compromised computers, making it harder for researchers to study how the worm works. Full details at Yahoo News.

Anti-virus company Symantec said in a blog post that late last week, some Flame "command-and-control servers sent an updated command to several compromised computers."

"This command was designed to completely remove (Flame) from the compromised computers."

Flame malicious software (malware) appears to have been "in the wild" for two years or longer and prime targets so far have been energy facilities in the Middle East, especially in Iran.

The discovery of Flame immediately sparked speculation that it had been created by US and Israeli security services to steal information about Iran's controversial nuclear drive.