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Flame virus wiped from computers by suicide command

Security experts estimate that Flame has been around since at least 2010, and possibly as early as 2007, and that it was likely created by a nation state.

Pardon Me. That should be "State Sponsored Cyber warfare" . And as the USA hates Iran the most , that's probably why everyone is looking in their direction. Not to say Iran doesn't deserve it. Still... The world has changed. Again.

"Compromised computers regularly contact their pre-configured control server to acquire additional commands," Symantec wrote in a blog post earlier this week. "Following the request, the C&C server shipped them a file named browse32.ocx. This file can be summarized as the module responsible for removing Flamer from the compromised computer."

Files ending in .ocx are windows files. Executables , actually. Our great state sponsored virus is a windows virus.

I feel that it is my obligation to point out that unless you're playing games, you shouldn't be running a windows system. Why is this my obligation ? Because you're not allowed to even write a news story these days pointing out it was yet another windows only virus that attacked and did all that damage , microsoft will sue you for defamation. yet , here we are , another windows only virus.

You should be running Macs , or Linux boxes. (ha ha , you probably don't know this but the Mac Operating system started out as a version of Linux , so running a Mac is running Linux). Ubuntu is reasonably user friendly , and totally free of charge. And comes with an office suite called Open Office, that does word processing , spread sheets , all the stuff Microsoft office does without the virii.

It's open season on all windows machines, people. virus scanners don't catch new virii , they scan for existing ones that they know about , and that means you're standing naked in the rain storm every time a new virus comes out. The virus makers test these things and make darn sure they'll slip past all the major virus scanenrs before they release them.

the cost of running windows for a business is too high to support , and getting higher. Only microsoft propaganda , and their constant deluge of FUD (Fear , uncertainty , Distrust , and yes that is actually a term the microsoft marketting department uses , they got sued and certain marketting documents became public knowledge) is the only reason they're still standing.

What can you do about it ? go get an old clunker and put linux on it. Ubuntu probably , and just practice. You're boss isn't going to listen to you to change out every machine in the corperation , but you don't have to tell him anything. You just have to wait for one or two windows only disasters to befall him , and then point out a few news articles, that's all.