Russia-based cyber intelligence firm Kaspersky has revealed U.S. surveillance worms have been found on Iranian, Pakistani, Afghani, Russian and Chinese computers and networks.

The virus worms -- similar to those used in the 2010 Stuxnet attack on Iran's nuclear facility -- are capable of disguising as typical Windows programs and burying deep into the network.

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Kaspersky Lab claims some of the worms have spread into the firmware, meaning even if hard-drives are wiped, the surveillance program will still live on.

These firmware viruses are extremely hard to remove and typically mean the organization needs to remove the entire computer, or potentially change its network to avoid further surveillance.

Kaspersky notes the new surveillance "surpasses anything known in terms of complexity and sophistication of techniques, and that has been active for almost two decades."

Being active for two decades is surprising, but some of the U.S. targets in Russia and China have been monitored ever since the end of the Cold War. These may be the targets where the U.S. has been able to implant surveillance technology in the firmware.

Apart from being incredibly hard to remove, firmware bugs are also capable of replicating security keys, allowing them to break into encrypted zones.

Under the name 'Equation Group', the U.S. and Israeli governments have implemented surveillance on some of the most powerful countries in the world. Even though the attacks have remnants of the Stuxnet attack, they don't seem to damage networks, but maintain surveillance and bury deeper into the network.

These attacks could bring severe consequences to relations between the U.S. and China, which President Obama has been trying to grow with new economic options.

TagsKaspersky, U.S. surveillance, Networks, Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan