Western officials have acknowledged that the US teamed up with Israel to develop cyber spy malware Flame to cripple the nuclear power program in Iran.

Based on a Washington Post report, previous government officials with knowledge on US cyber operations disclosed that Flame is part of a five-year-old top-secret campaign called ‘Olympic Games’.

Sources told the online newspaper company that two US spy agencies, namely the National Security Agency (NSA), an expert in malware development for US opponents, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which is taking part of the cyber campaign, backed the development of Flame.

These former officials said both agencies teamed up in a bid to cool down the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear fuel enrichment program, cut down pressure for a highly likely military attack and stretch forth timetables for diplomacy and sanctions.

They added that efforts to slacken the Iranian nuclear program started in the mid-200s through cyber techniques for sabotage.

At that time, the campaign merely revolved around intelligence gathering to spy on possible targets and build tools for damage.

The Officials claim that five years ago the program went full-blown and shifted away from military to CIA management.

Flame is a malware that was a report subject from the Iranian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) security group, and keyed out as a new version of malware related to Duqu and Stuxnet, which caused equipment malfunctions to Iran’s nuclear fuel enrichment program.

US and Israel collaborated to develop the Flame malware in an effort to slow Iran’s nuclear fuel enrichment program. (Image: William Warby, via Flickr / CC)

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

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