Stuxnet VS Fukushima?
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21086" title="Natanz nuclear facility" src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/11/Natanz-nuclear-facility.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="422" /> In what appears to be the first confirmation that the Stuxnet malware hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that malicious computer code launched by “enemies” of the state had sabotaged centrifuges used in Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program. The surprise announcement at a press conference coincided with news that two of Iran’s top nuclear scientists had been ambushed Monday by assassins who killed one scientist and seriously injured the other. Iran had previously acknowledged that Stuxnet infected the personal computers of workers at its Bushehr nuclear power plant but had insisted that the malware had not infected work systems involved in the nuclear program, and that the program itself had not been harmed.
Iran: Computer Malware Sabotaged Uranium Centrifuges | Threat Level
The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal. Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own. Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran’s ability to make its first nuclear arms.
Stuxnet Worm Used Against Iran Was Tested in Israel
Stuxnet could harm nuclear safety: U.N. atom chief | Reuters «
Stuxnet could harm nuclear safety: U.N. atom chief | Reuters . By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA | Tue Feb 1, 2011 10:08am EST VIENNA (Reuters) – Cyber attacks such as the Stuxnet computer worm could harm nuclear sites but Russia and Iran are paying “enough attention” to prevent any possible accident at Iran’s Bushehr reactor, the U.N. nuclear chief said on Tuesday. Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters the U.N. watchdog was watching developments and gathering information about Stuxnet with interest. Russia has urged NATO to investigate last year’s Stuxnet attack on the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran, saying it could have triggered a disaster on the scale of the Chernobyl reactor explosion in Ukraine in 1986.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Stuxnet, a computer virus designed to attack servers isolated from the Internet, such as at power plants, has been confirmed on 63 personal computers in Japan since July, according to major security firm Symantec Corp. The virus does not cause any damage online, but once it enters an industrial system, it can send a certain program out of control. Symantec says the virus reaches the servers via USB memory sticks, and warns against the careless use of such devices. Systems at power plants, gas stations and water facilities are not connected to the Internet to protect them from cyber-attacks.
