Israel has vehemently denied being behind the virus which was used to “spy” on the Iranian Nuclear talks in Europe.
A “spy” computer virus was uncovered in each of three hotels where talks between American and Iranian officials were held about the future of Iran’s nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Some blamed Israel for having planted the virus.
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This morning Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tsipi Hotoveli told Israeli radio that the reports linking the virus to Israel are baseless. “The most important task is to prevent a bad agreement with Iran, which could eventually put Israel under nuclear threat from that country, ” she said.
Researchers from the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky uncovered the virus which they said was an upgrade of one first discovered in 2011 known as Duqu. While not directly naming Israel, Kapersky’s report strongly implied that Israel was responsible. As the Journal points out, an earlier version of the official report called the new computer virus Duqu Bet — Bet being the Hebrew letter for ‘B.’
The virus was also reportedly found to have been unleashed on computers belonging to world leaders and diplomats who attended the ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz held last year.
It works by literally taking over someone’s computer. All notebook computers have cameras today and, for example, a person using the virus can remotely control the camera on an infected computer. He can also gain access to every communication going to and from the infected computer.
There has never been any proof, however, that Israel was responsible for the Duqu virus and there is no evidence today that it was involved in this hack.
American officials have not pointed a finger of blame at anyone. They point out that the findings were made by a private firm which took it upon itself to name Israel as the culprit. The reality is that anyone, including the participants in the talks, could have been behind the virus.
