Malware Flame could have been a first strike weapon against Iran, according to insecurity outfit Symantec.

Although people have known that Flame had spying potential, but Symantec claims it was a weapon of war which might have been used in April to hit Iranian businesses. Iran had admitted that Flame for caused data loss on computers in the country's main oil export terminal and Oil Ministry.

Symantec researcher Vikram Thakur said on Thursday that the company has now identified a component of Flame that allows operators to delete files from computers, which means it can cause critical programs to fail or completely disable operating systems. Flame was deployed at least five years ago and meant that a US president could have flicked a switch and deleted huge numbers of files in Iran.