Stuxnet Infects 30,000 Industrial Computers In Iran

eldavojohn writes "The BBC and AFP are releasing more juicy details about the now infamous Stuxnet worm that Iranian officials have confirmed infected 30,000 industrial computers inside Iran following those exact fears. The targeted systems that the worm is designed to infect are Siemens SCADA systems. Talking heads are speculating that the worm is too complex for an individual or group, causing blame to be placed on Israel or even the United States — although the US official claims they do not know the origin of the virus. Iran claims it did not infect or place any risk to the new nuclear reactor in Bushehr, which experts are suspecting was the ultimate target of the worm."

Comments

Re:strange conclusion.

[cpghost]

i mean, all you need is the information; this isn't the manhattan project.

Getting information was not so difficult, even from within the Manhattan Project. If a government is hellbent on infiltrating secret projects of a rival government, they sure have enough resources at hand.

Re:Not so bad of a result

[Ironsides]

I love the double standard! So, if that's the case, then people should STFU about Iran building anything, considering they haven't signed that treaty either...

Iran signed 1 July 1968. What was that about a double standard and STFU?

Re:Not so bad of a result

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Ahmadinejad never said that. The quote is a mistranslation and has mendaciously used as propaganda by Zionists and useful idiots as proof of Iran's alleged destructive intentions.

If you bothered to read the entire page you linked to, the Guardian published a retraction: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/apr/23/corrections-clarifications

Re:Bushehr as target

[Zocalo]

There was a screenshot posted that was purported to be the Bushehr plant's control systems shortly after the claims that it was the target of Stuxnet first appeared. SIMATIC WinCC is Siemens' SCADA front-end tool for Windows clients, so either this image is of another nuclear plant or Bushehr does indeed use Siemens software.

In any event, in the early analyses of Stuxnet, that the target was Bushehr was speculative based on:

• The high number of infections in Iran
• That the software was so complicated and targeted at very specific PLCs within a Siemens SCADA environment implying a particular installation was being targeted
• That the second point above in turn implied that a nation state that had acquired inside knowledge about the target was behind the worm, although which one wasn't even speculated at
• Bushehr was believed to have experienced some kind of technical issue within a suitable time frame

Assuming the screenshot and target of Stuxnet are both Bushehr, then I don't actually know which is worse; that someone would trust apparently pirated software to run a nuclear plant, or that someone would deliberately try to disrupt the operations of one...

Re:Bushehr as target

[fava]

There is an analysis of the screenshot at http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/396-No-Nukes.html

The conclusion is that it is probably a screenshot of a wast water treatment plan, not a nuke facility.

Re:Not so bad of a result

[theshowmecanuck]

Martin van Creveld is a Israeli historian and researcher

Yes he is. That is, he is a citizen and is a historian and researcher, and is entitled to his own opinion. Let me say the key part again, *his own opinion*. He is not part of the Israeli government. And in case you forgot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said "Israel should be wiped off the map", well he IS the PRESIDENT of Iran. It sounds like you are not clear on or don't understand the subtleties of a citizen making a statement and the head of state of a country making a similar statement. There are many people who advocate turning "Iran into a glass parking lot." Just do a Google search for that last phrase that I put in quotes. You'll find many (although not exclusively) are Americans. However, as citizens of America, the weight we put behind what they say is far, far less than if The President of the U.S.A. were to say it. So even if you are correct as to what Creveld said, it is not rational to assume that it is the Israeli government's position. However I don't doubt that the Israelis would retaliate in kind if they were attacked, against their attackers. Netanyahu said, 'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel'. Since I haven't seen any Israeli suicide bombers and no Israeli jihads, nor Israeli hijackers flying into buildings lately, I tend to believe this is true.

I know it is currently popular to jump on the Israeli bashing bandwagon. But remember, if the Arab leaders in 1948 hadn't told the Palestinians to leave Israel so that the surrounding countries could attack Israel, we wouldn't have this situation to begin with. Read documented history and not propaganda. There never was a country with a distinct government called Palestine, ever.

Re:and why would that be a problem, exactly?

[shutdown -p now]

Citation please, along with the actual non-paraphrased quotes.

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FckLO8HcNyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk_eXtCu03E

Oh, and here are a few more which, while they don't quite come from leaders, do come from agents of the Iranian state - in their official capacity - cheering the crowd:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHoVuFlrcjA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92myDzAFgU4

Search for "death to Israel" and "death to America" on YouTube for tons more of that.