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Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran

Posted by Soulskill on from the cyber-bombshell dept.

diewlasing sends this excerpt from the NY Times: "From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran's main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America's first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program. Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games — even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran's Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet."

4 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Uhm, so we're at war now with Iran? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I guess this means we're officially at war with Iran since it was declared that acts of cyberterrorism would be considered acts of war, right?

    1. Re:Uhm, so we're at war now with Iran? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Also note that said reporter is trying to sell a new book.

      Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, by David E. Sanger. Hardcover on Sale: June 05, 2012.

    2. Re:Uhm, so we're at war now with Iran? by SomePgmr · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As someone that's lived in the area his whole life, we all know, and sadly accept, that our politicians are degenerate criminals. The political history of the city and state are an ongoing joke for a reason... we've earned it. I couldn't even guess how many are currently in prison or have done time.

      Also, when you say Mayor Daley, most of us think of the more recent Richard M. Daley, who is very much alive and avoided prison (though many of his people didn't).

      You can start here and just keep reading down, though there are fun bits before it too...
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Daley#Daley_orders_demolition_of_Meigs_Field

  2. Ask yourself "In whose interest is this story?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A story like this doesn't just magically happen. It's not wikileaked. So why would someone want this story in the public? Could it be so that tension between the USA and Iran ratchets up? Because that could induce a whole lot more spending on the military. And all those people who aren't going to be making buckets of money from Iraq and Afghanistan will either need to adjust their standard of living downwards, or find new sources of income. Getting military with China is a bad idea, North Korea is too close to China - look what happened last time - it's the only reason there is a North Korea. Nope: better to pick on a country more isolated.