It’s strange to talk about self-destruction for a computer virus, yet that’s what’s happening with Flame, the malware we discussed just a few days ago.
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Some time ago, there was talk of Flame, likely considered the most powerful and dangerous computer virus ever discovered to date.
Existing for at least four years, Flame infiltrated thousands of computers and faithfully recorded the usage of the infected PCs, without ever revealing its existence to unsuspecting users.
Disruptive and widespread, especially in Middle Eastern countries, it is probable that Flame was created for purposes of genuine military espionage and population control.
A very powerful and dangerous weapon, however, according to what Symantec announces, appears to be modifying itself: researchers studying the virus have indeed noticed in recent days that Flame is self-destructing.
It seems that on some machines where the installation of Flame was not entirely successful, code has been found that would lead to the automatic destruction of the virus.
Various hypotheses have been put forward so far, but the most accredited one would be that the creators of Flame decided to trigger the suicide command to prevent laboratories studying the malware from obtaining too much information, perhaps even tracing back to the development team.
A decidedly peculiar case: despite being sophisticated and difficult to decipher, Flame seems to have turned out to be a “timid” virus, one might say.
However, it is clear that behind this virus project is a team of people who highly value their identity and personal security, so much so that they launched not only the self-destruct but also an additional command to leave no trace of Flame on the affected PCs.
It will therefore likely be impossible to determine if one has been spied on by Flame or not.
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