Posted on 01/16/2011 7:49:05 PM PST by Sharondownunderinnz
The New York Times reported rather conclusively on Saturday that the super-advanced computer virus that has at least partially crippled Iran’s nuclear program was developed and tested by Israel, with American involvement.
Known as Stuxnet, the virus was first identified “in the wild” about two years ago. About one year ago, it infected the computers that control the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz in central Iran. By all accounts, Stuxnet has to date managed to knock out 984 centrifuges and has, according to Israeli officials, set back Iran’s nuclear program by a good three-to-four years.
According to the report, the idea for the virus was birthed after Israel requested bombs and a green light from the US to launch a military assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Told that such an assault would not end Iran’s nuclear program, but merely set it back by several years, former US President George W. Bush said no.
So, work began on another way to achieve the same goal without sparking a Middle East war.
One of the keys to the plan were the computer controllers made by the German technology firm Siemens, which US intelligence had learned were being used at the Natanz plant. American engineers spent time analyzing the potential security holes in the Siemens machines.
But there was a hiccup.
Iran is apparently using centrifuges modeled on the now-archaic designs of Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan. America had gotten its hands on a large stockpile of these centrifuges when Libya dismantled its nuclear program in 2003, but US and British engineers failed to get the things to operate in a stable manner.
That’s where Israel comes in. At the nuclear base in the southern Israel town of Dimona, engineers did manage, reportedly after much trial and error, to get the outdated centrifuges to run stably and were able to test the meticulously-crafted computer worm on them.
Computer security experts who have since deconstructed Stuxnet say it is a work of art, and by far the most advanced computer virus ever created.
Stuxnet has infected countless industrial computers around the world, but was very carefully coded to only attack a very specific kind of system performing a very specific kind of task.
Basically, the way Stuxnet works is that is causes the centrifuges to spin so fast that they begin to wobble and tear themselves apart. But that’s not enough, as the computer controllers that run the centrifuges are programmed to shut down at the first sign of trouble. So, Stuxnet was also programmed to fool the computer controllers by sending signals indicated that all was well with the centrifuges, when in reality they were self-destructing.
And Stuxnet might not be done. One expert who examined the code said the virus has the ability to hibernate and self-replicate, hiding itself deep inside a computer system undetected only to reemerge and again cause havoc at a later date.
Both Israel and the US continue to assert they have no connection to Stuxnet, though it is now widely believed that the Israeli army’s vaunted Unit 8200, the equivalent of American’s National Security Agency, was the originator.
A book about this virus, its creators and its implementation is something I’d really like to read someday. Awesome stuff.
Is that supposed to mean something?
So how did Iran’s computers get infected? Did someone there open a spam viagra e-mail in the nuclear facilities?
Oy Vey...
LOL I was wondering the same thing.
Unlike “others”, No innocents were harmed in this attack. I wonder if Iran would make sure no innocent civilians were harmed in an attack on Israeli nuke plant?
Yay Israel!!
Of course, the Old Gray Whore MUST complete the job its philosophical master, Hitler, began.
Godwin’s law be damned — the NYT won’t be satisfied until Israel is destroyed and every Jew on earth removed.
And the NY Jews will continue to use Mitzvah to mask Holocaust, even after the prior generation encountered the latter.
Didn't the New York Times or some folks that work there report that Sarah Palin is the real culprit in Tucson? It would be better if some other paper reported something 'conclusively.' The NYT is incapable of concluding much of anything.
Amen to that! I am so glad they have realized they can’t trust the US as an ally. The American voters have stabbed Israel in the back, but thank the Lord that the Israelis have the will to live even if US voters are too stupid to have the will to live.
I know that Orthodox Jews view Israel as the Suffering Servant, and in many ways I think that is true. Much of the security of the whole world falls to them.
That was one of the things I thought about when asked back in 2008 whether I’d prefer Obama or Hillary. At least Hillary would not have been so willing to turn her back on Israel, since Bill at least claims to subscribe to a religious denomination that believes whoever turns their back on Israel is cursed. That’s a TON better than Obama, who (allegedly) told the Egyptian ambassador that he “was and still is a Muslim who supports the Muslim agenda.”
I say “allegedly” because nobody has been able to turn up a video of the broadcast where the Egyptian ambassador gave his account of what Obama told him - either to prove that’s what the Egyptian ambassador claimed or to prove that it isn’t. Seems like there should be an archived copy of that show somewhere, but like everything associated with Obama it’s gone down the memory hole. Which leads me to believe that the ambassador actually did say that on air; otherwise we’d have seen the video showing that he didn’t.
Equivalent to the AIDS virus in the human body. Should have used a computer condom or practiced web abstinence. Love waits....eheheheh!
Ok, but who initially had an infected removable drive to insert into one of Iran’s secret computers?
Does Stuxnet rest on the sabbath? Oyyyyyyyyyyyy!
The beautiful part is, there is no-way Iran can avoid this second (ary) hit. If they don't take extreme measures, they will get hit again by a cyber attack. If they do take extreme measures, they can (maybe) protect themselves, at the cost of productivity. Either way, we win, they lose.
Thanks for posting.
According to the NYT account, GWB authorized the Stuxnet operation at tail end of his administration and Obama allegedly ordered it sped up. The idea was to buy more time, as absent a slowdown, my impression is that Israelis would have felt forced to take out Iranian facilities with nuclear force. NYT claims that it has slowed things down by about 3 years, which frankly is a relief to me, since by the time a decision has to be made to take military action, Obama will no longer be in WH etc.
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