LONDON (AP) -- Cybersecurity researchers say they've uncovered a new link between the infrastructure-wrecking Stuxnet program and the recently-discovered Flame virus.

Kaspersky Labs expert Alexander Gostev says in a blog post that his company had identified similarities in subsets of the code used to build both pieces of software.

Gostev said Monday that Kaspersky had pinned the similarities down to a single component used to spread the viruses through portable memory sticks.

British academic Alan Woodward says that the discovery suggests "that very early on there was some sharing" between the viruses' creators.

The discovery of Stuxnet revolutionized the cybersecurity field because it appeared aimed at Iran's disputed nuclear program -- the most high-profile example of malicious software being used to wreak industrial havoc.