Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions

Fox News ^ | 11/26/10 | Ed Barnes

[mad_as_he$$]

Yup. Very clever little worm.

[onedoug]

¨Watch out for this one, Swami¨ ping.

[Chode]

well, it has been known to happen...

can't find the link i want so this will have to do.

Siberian pipeline sabotage

The pipeline, as planned, would have a level of complexity that would require advanced automated control software, Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA). The pipeline utilized plans for a sophisticated control system and its software that had been stolen from a Canadian firm by the KGB. The CIA allegedly had the company insert a logic bomb in the program for sabotage purposes, eventually resulting in an explosion with the power of three kilotons of TNT ^[1].

The CIA was tipped off to the Soviet intentions to steal the control system plans in documents in the Farewell Dossier and, seeking to derail their efforts, CIA director William J. Casey followed the counsel of economist Gus Weiss and a disinformation strategy was initiated to sell the Soviets deliberately flawed designs for stealth technology and space defense. The operation proceeded to deny the Soviets the technology they desired to purchase to automate the pipeline management, then, a KGB operation to steal the software from a Canadian company was anticipated, and, in June 1982, flaws in the stolen software led to a massive explosion of part of the pipeline.

National Security Council staffer Thomas C. Reed documented the operation in his book, At The Abyss.^[2] In 2004, Reed, a former Air Force secretary of the Reagan administration, wrote that they had added a Trojan horse to equipment that the Soviet Union obtained from a company in Canada. When the components were deployed on a Trans-Siberian gas pipeline, the Trojan horse led to a huge explosion, according to Reed.^[3] As Reed explained, "The pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to the pipeline joints and welds. The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."

The explosion was, in fact, so large that the White House received warning from U.S. infrared satellites of a bizarre event in a remote area of the Soviet Union. NORAD had initially feared that the event was a missile launch from an area previously not known to have rockets.

As the explosion occurred in a remote area, no casualties are known to have resulted.

[hinckley buzzard]

The Obama Administration is working feverishly to find the perpetrator and prosecute him to the full extend of the law.

Probably explains why they are too busy to stop Wikileaks from embarrassing America yet once again.

[thethirddegree]

Thanks for posting Ron C. It is telling that this is not getting more coverage from the talking heads—they all seem to still be stuck “on the imminent nuclear threat from Iran”. Maybe the lack of coverage is part of the plan.

[Senator John Blutarski]

Rather than bomb Iran, I’d suggest that it would be far more economical to fund a campaign by the Iranian political opposition to destabilize the radical theocrats and the Ahmedinejad regime and drive them from power. I think these fanatical nutcases in Teheran are ripe to fall.

[Frantzie]

How did the worm phone home to Denmark and Malaysia servers of the underground facility was off the net?

Could it have got into the electrical power lines and NSA satellites got the signal of the power lines? On a laptop a worker took home?

I would have loved to been a fly on the wall when the centrifuges started spinning very quickly then started slowing down. I assume they have to run at a constant speed. The techs may not have even noticed it.

[garjog]

“Too easy for a story like this to be misinformation designed to ease feelings “

Good point. You are my kind of paranoid.

[DeadFurrow]

RC, This is going to get legs. Where will it end? When? and How?

[Seadog Bytes]

[bert]

.....—The worm also knew that the complex control system that ran the centrifuges was built by Siemens, the German manufacturer, and — remarkably — how that system worked as well and how to mask its activities from it.....

Siemens did it. It may have been there from day one.......

[Judith Anne]

bump to myself

[MinorityRepublican]

Regarding the U.S. Government, there’s just too many cooks in the kitchen.