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Iran Says Siemens Helped US, Israel Build Stuxnet
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."
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.
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...
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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