Stuxnet, Part 3: Looks like the creators of Stuxnet are far more awesome than we thought, except for the computers infected in Israel bit. But then, if you want it to look like Israel didn’t create it, infecting your own country’s computers would do that, wouldn’t it? On the other hand, Iran is rumored to already have enough nuclear material for five bombs, and they’re refusing to halt enrichment, so I’m thinking someone screwed up. Wired is covering Flame (the malware) in-depth.
Among Flame’s many modules is one that turns on the internal microphone of an infected machine to secretly record conversations that occur either over Skype or in the computer’s near vicinity; a module that turns Bluetooth-enabled computers into a Bluetooth beacon, which scans for other Bluetooth-enabled devices in the vicinity to siphon names and phone numbers from their contacts folder; and a module that grabs and stores frequent screenshots of activity on the machine, such as instant-messaging and email communications, and sends them via a covert SSL channel to the attackers’ command-and-control servers.
Well, that’s one creepy Big Brother program.
Inspector Clouseau lives on: The French commandos who were surveilling the Toulouse terrorist–who killed three children and an adult at a Jewish school–fell asleep on watch. Which is why the terrorist was able to murder more people. Great work, France. Wonderful news that your special forces are so good that they can do their job in their sleep. Oh. Wait. Parlez-vous “Lawsuit”? I knew you could.
Why yes, they’re laughing: Xinhua seems to have the most honest news coverage of Israel from time to time, and here they are again, pointing out that Iran has been laughing at the world while pretending to negotiate about its nuclear program. Let’s see, refusal to stop enrichment, putting in new nuclear plants, and saying they don’t neead IAEA inspection of nuclear sites. Yeah, they’re laughing, all right. Because they’ve been getting away with it for decades. Why shouldn’t they laugh? the world ignores their blatant disregard of the arms embargo on Syria, openly admits the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is in Syria helping oppress the people, it stands by while Iran massacres its children, and pretty much does nothing but issue strongly-worded statements. Yeah. They’re laughing. At us.