The New York Times.
MOSCOW — When Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of Europe’s largest antivirus company, discovered the Flame virus
that is afflicting computers in Iran and the Middle East, he recognized
it as a technologically sophisticated virus that only a government
could create.
He also recognized that the virus, which he compares to the Stuxnet
virus built by programmers employed by the United States and Israel,
adds weight to his warnings of the grave dangers posed by governments
that manufacture and release viruses on the Internet.
“Cyberweapons are the most dangerous innovation of this century,” he
told a gathering of technology company executives, called the CeBIT
conference, last month in Sydney, Australia. While the United States and
Israel are using the weapons to slow the nuclear bomb-making abilities
of Iran, they could also be used to disrupt power grids and financial
systems or even wreak havoc with military defenses.
Computer
security companies have for years used their discovery of a new virus or
worm to call attention to themselves and win more business from
companies seeking computer protection. Mr. Kaspersky, a Russian computer
security expert, and his company, Kaspersky Lab, are no different in
that regard. But he is also using his company’s integral role in
exposing or decrypting three computer viruses apparently intended to
slow or halt Iran’s nuclear program to argue for an international treaty
banning computer warfare.
