UN: Nations Must Work To Avoid Cyber Warfare

UN: Nations Must Work To Avoid Cyber War

The United Nations has called on nations to talk to each other and pull back from the threat of cyber war.

Dr Hamadoun Toure, head of the UN telecommunications agency, told the BBC that the "best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place".

Speaking just over a week after the discovery of an online "super weapon" known as Flame, since described as the most malicious online attack ever found , Toure said that the UN wanted to help find a "peaceful resolution".

Toure admitted that, as researchers suspect, Flame was likely to be the work of a nation state.

"All indications are that Flame has been created by a nation state, that's clear," he told the BBC.

"The ITU is not mandated to make a judgement on who is responsible. Our role is to work with partners to promote better co-operation."

He added, however, that he didn't believe the United States was behind it.

Toure also said that suspicion the US was behind the Stuxnet attack with targeted Iranian nuclear enrichment sites was "speculation".

"There is a fine line between security and freedom," he said.

"Therefore, we're trying to see that there's a global effort to keep cyberspace free of politics, ideology and especially free of criminals."

Meanwhile the security lab Symantec released its latest research on the size and scope of Flame.

In an info-graphic released to the public, it said that Flame was the "most complex piece of malware ever created".

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