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Iran Says Siemens Helped US, Israel Build Stuxnet

Posted by Soulskill on from the fair-and-balanced dept.

CWmike writes "Iran's Brigadier General, Gholam Reza Jalali, accused Siemens on Saturday with helping US and Israeli teams craft the Stuxnet worm that attacked his country's nuclear facilities. 'Siemens should explain why and how it provided the enemies with the information about the codes of the SCADA software and prepared the ground for a cyber attack against us,' Jalali told the Islamic Republic News Service. Siemens did not reply to a request for comment on Jalali's accusations. Stuxnet, which first came to light in June 2010 but hit Iranian targets in several waves starting the year before, has been extensively analyzed by security researchers. Symantec and Langner Communications say Stuxnet was designed to infiltrate Iran's nuclear enrichment program, hide in the Iranian SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) control systems that operate its plants, then force gas centrifuge motors to spin at unsafe speeds. Jalali suggested that Iranian officials would pursue Siemens in the courts, and claimed that Iranian researchers traced the attack to Israel and the US. He said information from infected systems was sent to computers in Texas."

12 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. Whose enemies? by mangu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FTA: "Siemens should explain why and how it provided the enemies with the information about the codes of the SCADA software and prepared the ground for a cyber attack against us,"

    Define 'enemies', please. From the rest of the world's POV, Siemens should explain why and how it provided the enemy with equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

    1. Re:Whose enemies? by ae1294 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      FTA: "Siemens should explain why and how it provided the enemies with the information about the codes of the SCADA software and prepared the ground for a cyber attack against us,"

      Define 'enemies', please. From the rest of the world's POV, Siemens should explain why and how it provided the enemy with equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

      Iran has as much right as the US does to make nuclear weapons.

    2. Re:Whose enemies? by mangu · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Iran has as much right as the US does to make nuclear weapons.

      No nation whose leader has sworn to destroy another nation has the right to have any sort of weapons at all.

      And don't start with that "he was mistranslated' bullshit. Diplomatic language was invented exactly to minimize the possibility of misunderstandings that could lead to war.

      But, of course, you cannot expect that a nation who cannot understand the most basic principle of diplomacy, that of safe passage, would understand something subtler, like the proper use of language.

      A nation that refuses to use diplomacy is a nation that should be left without weapons.

    3. Re:Whose enemies? by zonky · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Israel has never publically confirmed a nuclear test - but the Vela Incident has always assumed to be a combined South Africa/Israel test.

      The NPT calls for disarmenent, not a reduction in stockpiles - which is sort of the point- the treaty is worthless, other than as a beating stick for large powers over smaller nation states.

    4. Re:Whose enemies? by ae1294 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No nation whose leader has sworn to destroy another nation has the right to have any sort of weapons at all.

      The US swore to destroy the evil empire that was the USSR, The UN should go into the US and take all of their weapons of mass destruction ASAP.

    5. Re:Whose enemies? by ae1294 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just fine thank you? The US has been reducing nuclear capacity for 30 years...

      But yet still has the fire power to destroy the world several times over... Not to mention they have been creating larger and larger conventional weapons that rival that of atomic ones.

    6. Re:Whose enemies? by DeadCatX2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Are you fucking kidding? "No one is threatening Iran"? I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

      The US and Israel threaten Iran all the time. Journalists usually refer to it as "saber rattling". Mind you, Iran does not have a single nuclear weapon, and yet they are threatened repeatedly by two countries that do have an inventory of nuclear weapons.

      If you really want to deal with "regional threats", how about getting Israel to ditch all their nukes? For that matter, how about getting Israel to stop stealing land from Palestinians? The settlements have done more to destabilize the region then any bellicose Iranian rhetoric.

      Meanwhile, you seriously think that devout fundamentalist Muslims would really drop a nuclear weapon on their own holy land? Jerusalem is pretty important to them, too. For that matter, what evidence do you have that they want nuclear weapons, as opposed to nuclear energy?

      Oh, and by the way, please leave the strawman "traitorous lover of Persians!" at the door. I can dislike Iran while simultaneously standing up against stupid people who wish to exploit the ridiculous behavior of the Iranian government for political gain.

      --
      :(){ :|:& };:
    7. Re:Whose enemies? by tehcyder · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Do you even begin to understand the concepts of mutually assured destruction?

      The non-proliferation treaty only has teeth if those states with nukes maintain an arsenal strong enough to wipe an offending state off the map.

      It's not fucking mutual anything if only one side has the vast preponderance of nukes and can destroy the other while remaining more or less unscathed though, is it, you stupid twat?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. Obviously propoganda by Taelron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So let me get this right, they spent all this time and money to design, develope, and deploy this software. To conceal it and hide its presence, but you now want us to believe that they simply configured it to send data to an IP in Texas? If the stuxnet really did phone home with information, the developers would have programmed it to send to relays in other parts of the world to further hide its origin. If it DID send data to a Texas IP, I'd think any logical thinking person would realize its someone else trying to cast blame on the US... More FUD from Iran...

  3. making crap up? by raist21 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps I'm wrong on this, but I was under the impression that the controller's were part of a closed network, hence the reason for sneaking the stuxnet virus in via USB. Why on earth would it be trying to report back to anywhere?
    Either, I have my facts wrong, or somebody is just making crap up to point a finger.

  4. Thank you by ALeavitt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I can not speak on the behalf of anybody else, as a member of the civilized world allow me to just say thank you Siemens, Mossad, the Pentagon, and anybody else who may have been involved in keeping the world safe by keeping nuclear arms out of the hands of genocidal dictators and oppressive theocracies.

    --
    This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
    1. Re:Thank you by keeboo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      (...)the Pentagon(...)
      have been involved in keeping the world safe by keeping nuclear arms out of the hands of genocidal dictators and oppressive theocracies

      You mean the military guys from the USA?
      The same self-serving country which promoted oppressive right-wing dictatorships in Latin America because of US' fear of Communism?

      Yeah, nice kind-hearted guys indeed, they really work hard to make the World a better place.