Posted on 12/15/2010 3:38:52 PM PST by MissesBush
Top German computer consultant tells 'Post' virus was as effective as military strike, a huge success; expert speculates IDF creator of virus.
The Stuxnet virus, which has attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities and which Israel is suspected of creating, has set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program by two years, a top German computer consultant who was one of the first experts to analyze the program’s code told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
“It will take two years for Iran to get back on track,” Langer said in a telephone interview from his office in Hamburg, Germany. “This was nearly as effective as a military strike, but even better since there are no fatalities and no full-blown war. From a military perspective, this was a huge success.”
RELATED: Ahmadinejad admits centrifuges damaged by virus Iran nuke enrichment stopped; Stuxnet worm suspected 'Stuxnet specifically targeted Iranian nuclear program'
Langer spoke to the Post amid news reports that the virus was still infecting Iran’s computer systems at its main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and its reactor at Bushehr.
Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog, said that Iran had suspended work at its nuclear-field production facilities, likely a result of the Stuxnet virus.
According to Langer, Iran’s best move would be to throw out all of the computers that have been infected by the worm, which he said was the most “advanced and aggressive malware in history.” But, he said, even once all of the computers were thrown out, Iran would have to ensure that computers used by outside contractors were also clean of Stuxnet.
“It is extremely difficult to clean up installations from Stuxnet, and we know that Iran is no good in IT [information technology] security, and they are just beginning to learn what this all means,” he said. “Just to get their systems running again they have to get rid of the virus, and this will take time, and then they need to replace the equipment, and they have to rebuild the centrifuges at Natanz and possibly buy a new turbine for Bushehr.”
Widespread speculation has named Israel’s Military Intelligence Unit 8200, known for its advanced Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities, as the possible creator of the software, as well as the United States.
Langer said that in his opinion at least two countries – possibly Israel and the United States – were behind Stuxnet.
Israel has traditionally declined comment on its suspected involvement in the Stuxnet virus, but senior IDF officers recently confirmed that Iran had encountered significant technological difficulties with its centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment facility.
“We can say that it must have taken several years to develop, and we arrived at this conclusion through code analysis, since the code on the control systems is 15,000 lines of code, and this is a huge amount,” Langer said.
“This piece of evidence led us to conclude that this is not by a hacker,” he continued. “It had to be a country, and we can also conclude that even one nation-state would not have been able to do this on its own.”
Eric Byres, a computer security expert who runs a website called Tofino Security, which provides solutions for industrial companies with Stuxnet-related problems, told the Post on Tuesday that the number of Iranians visiting his site had jumped tremendously in recent weeks – a likely indication that the virus is still causing great disarray at Iranian nuclear facilities.
“What caught our attention was that last year we maybe had one or two people from Iran trying to access the secure areas on our site,” Byres said. “Iran was never on the map for us, and all of a sudden we are now getting massive numbers of people going to our website, and people who we can identify as being from Iran.”
Byres said that some people openly identified themselves as Iranian when asking for permission to log onto his website, while others were impersonating employees of industries with which he frequently works.
“There are a large number of people trying to access the secure areas directly from Iran and other people who are putting together fake identities,” he said. “We are talking about hundreds. It could be people who are curious about what is going on, but we are such a specialized site that it would only make sense that these are people who are involved in control systems.”
Too bad it doesn’t set the back 900 years.
That extra two years may be enough if the best solution occurs: the Iranian people rise up and overthrow the islamics in power.
I'm not holding my breath but it's a possibility.
“Too bad it doesn’t set the back 900 years.” I want to set them back 1400 years and about 10 Israeli nukes would do it!
I don’t buy this for a minute. PLC’s can easily be replaced and reprogrammed. Unless the software commanded the machinery to destroy itself this is bad reporting...
While Islam sets them back 1000.
My understanding is that it did exactly that.
I also read in a previous article that a number of Iranian scientists who were unable to solve the production issues met with "untimely deaths" before the virus was known to be the cause of their issues.
In reality it could be more than two years. It will be very difficult to clean all the machines and all the PCs without them being reinfected. I would guess they are going to get reinfected many times along the way.
In the meantime here’s to reinfections, and here’s to many, many, MANY more dead Iranian nuclear scientists. Whoever’s picking them off, God Bless you, and keep it up, there’s plenty of other targets to keep going after. Big target rich environment over there. God bless you and happy hunting!!!!
Yes, it was damaging the machines, but making them appear to work normally.
“I fear however this is just kicking the can down the road.”
Trust me, this is one of many “worms” waiting to wake up. They, Iranians, and the rest, of the world, haven’t seen the end of this. This is the beginning, of the end. Don’t doubt me.
What's a little frightening is that I think this method of attack tends to level the playing field among nations. Even if the IDF and/or NSA were responsible for this, I think it could be easily used against the US as well.
What I understand is that the malware lies dormant and can be turned on and off. And then it infects the PC all over again.
You if you were on a contained network, you would have to wipe each and every operating system clean. And, still, install new—proven clean versions of the new operating system into the computers.
And this assumes that the malware came from “outside.” It might be possible that the malware is actually part of the operating system—written from the outside and brought in.
Consider that the virus is made of two programs and are just waiting to meet. Virus A came in on the machines that does task A. Virus B comes in on PC B. Alone they are benign. When the two systems meet—violins, flowers, and mayehm. And since the malware is PART of the clean OS, it will take a long time to figure out where part A and B are. And you have to rebuild the system every time you make a mistake.
Brilliant stuff....
That is GREAT news. Yet, are Iran’s computers even necessary? The US built both uranium and plutonium bombs 65 years ago, with ZERO computers!
Many suspected the Israelis, and this article goes a long way toward confirming that.
See also: Why Stuxnet is Scaring the Tech World Half to Death: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2600754/posts
Gawd I love the IDF!
Didn’t we use mainframe computers 65 years ago?
... and some others were simply bumped off in classic hits, like motorcycles passing by and attaching magnetic bombs to the outside of the cars nuke scientists were driving.
Their loss might cost a few more years than that.
“What’s a little frightening is that I think this method of attack tends to level the playing field among nations. Even if the IDF and/or NSA were responsible for this, I think it could be easily used against the US as well.”
Yes and no, we are light years ahead of everyone else. We have been sitting, on “Stuxnet,” for years biding our time. All other nations are aware and wondering when it will, not maybe, but when it will be their turn. They are scared sh!t less. Don’t doubt me.
Not quite. In the Manhattan Project, Computer was actually a job title. Eight hours in front of an adding machine.
Obama gotta be pissed, his plan to ensure the Iranians get nukes as soon as possible has been derailed.
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