The Stars virus is a computer virus

Computer virus

A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...

 discovered by Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 in April 2011. Iran claims it is being used as a tool to commit espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

. The Stars virus is currently being studied in a laboratory in Iran - that means, major vendors of antivirus software

Antivirus software

Antivirus or anti-virus software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including but not limited to computer viruses, computer worm, trojan horses, spyware and adware...

 do not have access to samples and therefore they cannot assess any potential relation to Duqu

Duqu

Duqu is a computer worm discovered on 1 September 2011, thought to be related to the Stuxnet worm. The Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary, which discovered the threat, analyzed the malware and wrote a 60-page report,...

 or Stuxnet

Stuxnet

Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in June 2010. It initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens industrial software and equipment...

. Foreign computer experts say they have seen no evidence of the virus, and some even doubt its actual existence. Iran is claiming Stars to be harmful for computer systems. It is said to inflict minor damage in the initial stage and might be mistaken for executive files of governmental organizations.

This is the second attack claimed by Iran after Stuxnet

Stuxnet

Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in June 2010. It initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens industrial software and equipment...

 computer worm

Computer worm

A computer worm is a self-replicating malware computer program, which uses a computer network to send copies of itself to other nodes and it may do so without any user intervention. This is due to security shortcomings on the target computer. Unlike a computer virus, it does not need to attach...

 discovered in July 2010 which targeted industrial

Industrial engineering

Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...

 software and equipment.

See also

• Cyber electronic warfare
  Cyber electronic warfare
  Cyber electronic warfare is any military action involving the use of electromagnetic energy to control the domain characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify, and/or exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures.Cyber EW...
  
  
• Cyber security standards
  Cyber security standards
  Cyber security standards are security standards which enable organizations to practice safe security techniques to minimize the number of successful cyber security attacks. These guides provide general outlines as well as specific techniques for implementing cyber security. For certain specific...
  
  
• Cyber warfare
• List of cyber attack threat trends
• Proactive Cyber Defence
  Proactive Cyber Defence
  Proactive Cyber Defence means acting in anticipation to oppose an attack against computers and networks. Proactive cyber defence will most often require additional security from internet service providers....