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Defence Ministry, Central Bank warned of Flame attack

By Damith Wickremasekara

The Defence Ministry and the Central Bank are among some 200 state institutions which have been warned of a computer virus capable of illegally extracting information from data bases, a top official said yesterday.

The warning has been given by the Computer Emergency Readiness Team Coordination Centre (CERT) which is the key institution for cyber security in the country. “Since the virus could extract confidential data from the institutions, we have advised the state institutions to take maximum precautions to protect data,” CERT Information Security Engineer Roshan Chandraguptha said.

He said private institutions, including banks and leading companies, also had been warned of the possible attack by the virus identified as Flame.

Mr. Chandraguptha said that if the institutions were unable to take their own precautions, CERT could provide assistance. Earlier, the UN’s Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union said the virus was the most serious cyber threat.

Mr. Chandraguptha said the ‘Flame computer virus’ could come as an attachment via internet.
He said that according to available information data bases of large institutions were more vulnerable.

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