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Stuxnet worm hits Iran nuclear plant staff computers
BBC ^ | September 25, 2010

Posted on 09/26/2010 10:56:25 AM PDT by La Lydia

A complex computer worm has infected the personal computers of staff at Iran's first nuclear power station, the official IRNA news agency reported. However, the operating system at the Bushehr plant - due to go online in a few weeks - has not been harmed, project manager Mahmoud Jafari said. The Stuxnet worm is capable of seizing control of industrial plants. Some Western experts say its complexity suggests it could only have been created by a "nation state"...

The fact that Stuxnet has now been detected on the personal computers of staff will have no impact on plans to make the Bushehr plant operational next month, Mr Jafari said.

A team is now trying to remove the malicious software, or malware, from several affected computers, he told IRNA. It is believed to be the first-known worm designed to target major infrastructure facilities.

"An electronic war has been launched against Iran", Mahmoud Liayi, head of the information technology council at the ministry of industries, told the state-run Iran Daily newspaper.

A working group of experts met last week to discuss ways of fighting the worm, which Mr Liayi said has now infected about 30,000 IP addresses in Iran.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 05091979; habibelghanian; iran; myrtus; nukes
A "National State"... Norway, or maybe Mali. And the Iranians say, "No problem. Nothing to see here."
1 posted on 09/26/2010 10:56:28 AM PDT by La Lydia
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To: La Lydia

Someone at the NSA is going to get a pink slip over this from Obama...


2 posted on 09/26/2010 11:02:34 AM PDT by Thunder90 (Fighting for truth and the American way... http://citizensfortruthandtheamericanway.blogspot.com/)
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To: La Lydia
Should have been one of these...


3 posted on 09/26/2010 11:05:46 AM PDT by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2013)
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To: La Lydia
"An electronic war has been launched against Iran", Mahmoud Liayi, head of the information technology council at the ministry of industries, told the state-run Iran Daily newspaper.


4 posted on 09/26/2010 11:14:41 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (lame and ill-informed post)
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To: La Lydia

More than one way to skin a cat—bump


5 posted on 09/26/2010 11:15:36 AM PDT by madison10
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To: La Lydia

My bet is that it’s not really that sophisticated a piece of malware. If it was, whoever made it would have kept it quiet. Its purpose is probably to scare the Hell out of the Iranians when they turn the thing on.


6 posted on 09/26/2010 11:37:20 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The only stable state is one in which all men are equal before the law." -- Aristotle)
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To: La Lydia
There's more where that came from, too, goat-loving Hell-spawn.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

7 posted on 09/26/2010 11:41:00 AM PDT by The Comedian
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Whoever created the Stuxnet (and certainly it was not the United States because the information would already have been leaked to the NYTimes) was not interested in a bunch of Iranian laptops. The game was much deeper and seems to account for the delays in the Bushehr operation that were first noted about three weeks ago. Other reports have it that Bushehr has been badly damaged. Included in discussions on this are Russia, Israel, Germany, and Siemens.


8 posted on 09/26/2010 11:43:03 AM PDT by Melchior
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Whoever created the Stuxnet (and certainly it was not the United States because the information would already have been leaked to the NYTimes) was not interested in a bunch of Iranian laptops. The game was much deeper and seems to account for the delays in the Bushehr operation that were first noted about three weeks ago. Other reports have it that Bushehr has been badly damaged. Included in discussions on this are Russia, Israel, Germany, and Siemens.


9 posted on 09/26/2010 11:43:57 AM PDT by Melchior
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To: La Lydia

Do you really believe that the plant’s mainframe isn’t online? This is a major setback. This story has been floating around for a week now. There’s a reason it was leaked. The question is what else has been hit by this virus in Iran. When traffic lights all turn red yellow and green we’ll know. This is more like the movie Lawnmower Man. Things you never thought possible...


10 posted on 09/26/2010 12:22:18 PM PDT by appeal2 (Don't steal, the government hates competition.)
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To: The Comedian

“Honey, you seen the Linux CD...”

“I think it was next to the box of clay pigeons...”


11 posted on 09/26/2010 12:43:39 PM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui (consciousness is a heads up display)
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To: appeal2
Do you really believe that the plant’s mainframe isn’t online?

Why in the world would they put a plant like this on the Internet?

Someone's trying to convince us that Iran is less of a threat to the world than is actually the case.

12 posted on 09/26/2010 12:43:59 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: E. Pluribus Unum; madison10; La Lydia
This is what appears in the press. I'll guarantee you that the malware attack, like terrorism itself, is far worse and is asymmetric in nature -- making complete detection and elimination almost impossible.

Israel has been implicated, and it may very well be true. Allow me to speculate that the malware could have even been created with the help of Russia in cooperation with Israel.

Russia has nothing to gain by allowing the whack jobs in Iran to become nuclear any more than anyone in ME or East Europe does. But the nuke facility is of Russian design and origin, and Russians know its vulnerabilities.

Now let's speculate that Russia simply hoped to benefit from a transaction, but which when Iran chooses to exercise the technology, the system engages, overheats unexplainably and power kill switches are confounded and stuck in the off position. The tech becomes a molten mass of junk.

As an aside, Russia even reneged on shipment of S-300 missiles or their parts recently, too, if I recall correctly.

I'm just guessing but I'll bet Iranians are even fearful to throw any switches of any kind at this point.

I don't think the Saudi's have in their possession any tech from US or Russia that could do this, but they could be involved in this thing too in some way. They have no desire to see a nuclearly equipped Iran run as it is by a mad man situated within range of the same missiles that could reach Riyadh as easily as they can reach Tel Aviv.

What would be really funny to see would be Iran firing off missiles whose guidance system software has been corrupted and reprogrammed in such a way as to return the missile's trajectory to its the original site of firing. Might even be able to manipulate such a thing from a satellite.

Boom boom. Iran shoots itself, and this brings about regime change.

Just speculation, of course.

I've been including the following in recent threads on this topic. What Reagan did to the Soviets is quite instructive:

The Farewell Dossier

FReegards!


13 posted on 09/26/2010 12:46:26 PM PDT by Agamemnon (Intelligent Design is to evolution what the Swift Boat Vets were to the Kerry campaign)
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To: La Lydia
Stuxnet is what they are dealing with while the real bit of malware does its job well.

One can only hope.

14 posted on 09/26/2010 1:09:20 PM PDT by muir_redwoods (Obama. Chauncey Gardiner without the homburg.)
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To: The Comedian
Mr Smith.....

lol

15 posted on 09/26/2010 1:21:23 PM PDT by LasVegasMac
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To: La Lydia
Stuxnet

translated.....

I KILL YOU!

16 posted on 09/26/2010 1:23:55 PM PDT by LasVegasMac
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To: LasVegasMac

Translated from what language?


17 posted on 09/26/2010 1:26:00 PM PDT by La Lydia
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To: La Lydia


Stuxnet worm hits Iran nuclear plant staff computers

Simplest explanation...
The Iranian government workers are probably just acting like OUR government
works at the Security and Exchange Commission...
spending all day surfing the Internet for porn.


18 posted on 09/26/2010 1:45:12 PM PDT by VOA
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To: appeal2
... The question is what else has been hit by this virus in Iran ...

"Symantec's analysis of the code, O Murchu said, shows that nearly 60 percent of the computers infected with Stuxnet are in Iran. An additional 18 percent are in Indonesia. Less than 2 percent are in the U.S."
19 posted on 09/26/2010 3:05:38 PM PDT by algernonpj (He who pays the piper . . .)
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