Administration Being Investigated For Disclosing Tip-Top Secret Details of Cyberwarfare Op For Political Purposes... Continues Leaking Details of Tip-Top Secret Cyberwarfare Op For Political Purposes

They just can't stop talking to the press.

Here, I sense the motive is payback against Israel, because, they say Israel implemented cyberattacks against Iran's oil industry without US blessing.

So of course they leak.

The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.

The massive piece of malware was designed to secretly map Iran’s computer networks and monitor the computers of Iranian officials, sending back a steady stream of intelligence used to enable an ongoing cyberwarfare campaign, according to the officials.

The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military, has included the use of destructive software such as the so-called Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran’s nuclear enrichment equipment.

The emerging details about Flame provide new clues about what is believed to be the first sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage against an adversary of the United States.

“This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action,” said one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence official, who added that Flame and Stuxnet were elements of a broader assault that continues today. “Cyber collection against the Iranian program is way further down the road than this.”

Flame came to light last month after Iran detected a series of cyberattacks on its oil industry. The disruption was directed by Israel in a unilateral operation that apparently caught its U.S. partners offguard, according to several U.S. and Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

You want technical details, you say? Well, the Obama Administration is pleased to provide you with technical details.

The virus is among the most sophisticated and subversive pieces of malware exposed to date. Experts said the program was designed to replicate across even highly secure networks, then control everyday computer functions to send a flow of secrets back to its creators. The code could activate computer microphones and cameras, log keyboard strokes, take computer screen shots, extract geolocation data from images and send and receive commands and data through Bluetooth wireless technology.

Flame was designed to do all this while masquerading as a routine Microsoft software update, evading detection for several years by using a sophisticated program to crack an encryption algorithm.

There's no possible way Iran (or any other targeted country) can benefit from knowing the virus' tricks and tasks and Trojans, I guess.

Take that Bluetooth thing. A closed system does not have any connection to the internet, so even if you have a keylogger installed on it, how do you get that information back to you?

Well, it appears that the virus sends a signal to a portable device with a Bluetooth, the sort that someone might take into the area. And then when that device is brought home, it sends from there.

That's a neat trick.

Now, how many Bluetooth-enabled devices do you imagine Iran will be permitting near secure computers in the future?

How about none?

This scandal just ticked up a notch, because the leakers are continuing to leak, even while being investigated, and even leaking more critical information. They must be found and arrested at once.

posted by Ace at 03:45 PM

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