Iran Nuclear Agency Not "Thunderstruck" By Virus

twoheadedboy writes "Iran may have been hit hard by Stuxnet, but officials have said that reports of a virus infecting its nuclear facilities and forcing computers to play the AC/DC classic 'Thunderstruck' were rubbish. Last month, F-Secure's chief research officer, Mikko Hypponen, was sent an email that appeared to be from a scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), claiming nuclear systems had been targeted by cyber attackers. Whilst the chief of the AEOI has come out to deny those claims, the sender of that email still managed to get hold of an official aeoi.org.ir email address. That has left some onlookers baffled about what is going on."

Comments

One or both lied?

[Attila Dimedici]

Why would anyone be "baffled" by what is going on? It is not like it would be unprecedented for the chief of a government agency to outright lie about something like this. On the other hand it would not be unprecedented for the "leaker" to turn out to be lying either.

Re:One or both lied?

[icebike]

Actually, I called this Bogus at the time the story broke on SlashDot.

If the story had a more plausible origin I might have believed it, but to have originated from a top Nuclear Scientist in a paranoid state, who somehow sneaks an email past his keepers is just silly. If such a scientist has that ability, and a desire to embarrass the state they would leak far more devastating information than a childish exploit.

The email is as likely to have come from someone who actually tried (and perhaps failed) to plant such an exploit within Iranian systems. Or it was, as I suggested totally made up. Perhaps to gauge the reaction to a known false claim.

Re:One or both lied?

[radtea]

It is not like it would be unprecedented for the chief of a government agency to outright lie about something like this.

Much like US and Israeli intelligence agencies are lying about the threat of an Iranian bomb, which the Iranians have no intention of building.

Why do I find this claim plausible? Because the Israelis in particular have been claiming that Iran has been trying to build a bomb for over 20 years, and Iran does not yet have the bomb. That would put the Iranians in Sidney Opera House territory in terms of how late their project is.

Building nuclear weapons is easy. It only took four years the very first time to design and build both uranium and plutonium bombs from scratch, and it was done by people whose resources were fantastically limited compared to even a moderately wealthy state like modern Iran. Iran has a per capita GDP of about $3600, which is about half of the US at the bottom of the Great Depression and 1/3 of what it was in the early '40's, and what can be bought for those dollars is light-years ahead of what could be had in 1942, so there are no significant economic or technological constraints on Iran today compared to the US 70 years ago.

But Iran doesn't have a bomb? Why not?

Iranians aren't stupid or uneducated or technologically backward. Why would it take them more than a few years to replicate a relatively simple piece of technology?

The most plausible explanation to my mind is that they are not working on building one. If they were, they would have it by now.

It is perfectly reasonable for an oil-producing country to create a significant civil nuclear program, as the example of Canada shows, so the fact that Iran has oil in no way implies that they don't need nuclear power.

None of this makes much sense, unless Iran is not working on building a bomb.

Re:One or both lied?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Why would anyone be "baffled" by what is going on? It is not like it would be unprecedented for the chief of a government agency to outright lie about something like this. On the other hand it would not be unprecedented for the "leaker" to turn out to be lying either.

Remember that Iran is a country with no homosexuals. This marvelous achievement in the field of biology could hint at similar breakthroughs in other areas of science and engineering including computer security!

Re:One or both lied?

[Ambitwistor]

Iran got an advanced centrifuge design from A.Q. Khan that is extremely difficult to operate in practice. (We also interdicted the supply of some of the advanced machine components it requires.) For some reason, they stuck with it, and eventually got it to work. That's why it's taken them so long to get significant enrichment.

Now, if they were on a crash program to build a bomb, they could have abandoned it and pursued a simpler earlier Soviet design. So I agree it's not their first priority. Indeed, the fact that they stuck with the expensive but efficient technology suggests that they want more than to just "build a bomb".

However, that doesn't preclude a dual program, to pursue civilian uses, but retain the option of building a bomb as well. I suspect that's their real intention, and there is evidence that they've done some preliminary weapons work (such as implosion devices and delivery systems, IIRC). Iraq actually used (chemical) WMDs against them in the 1980s, and with all the U.S. activity in the region, they may eventually want a deterrent.

Re:One or both lied?

[cheesybagel]

Actually the way that uranium was separated for the Manhattan Project was tremendously inefficient and expensive. Iran has a larger population than the US and dollars depreciate in value due to inflation. This is why they are bothering with centrifuges. Well that and the fact that the technology is not supposed to be particularly hard to implement with a reasonable industrial base. Centrifuge separation is much more efficient than either of the processes used in the US to separate the uranium for its nuclear weapons. Why did they fail to do the weapons before? Having a revolution may have helped delay the project. After the revolution they had to fight the Iran-Iraq war. Then they had sanctions. It is well known that the Iranian army, which used to be the strongest army in the region when the Shah was in power, was recklessly abandoned and lots of people were ousted from the military in favor of Islamic revolutionary brigades or whatever. The result was that when Saddam invaded in the Iran-Iraq War they lost terribly until they got back some of the ex-military people to have a military edge for breakthroughs while they used massed human wave attacks to overwhelm the Iraqi positions. The revolutionary brigades did not know how to handle the more advanced military weapons platforms.

Iranians are not stupid. I have met several which are professors or researchers in universities all over North America and they manage to compete against other researchers very well. Their grasp of mathematics and geometry is particularly good. The US may have had the Depression and WWII but their enemies were an ocean away.

Re:One or both lied?

[Attila Dimedici]

Iran has a larger population than the US...

Um, no they don't. They do not even have a larger population than the U.S. had at the time of the Manhattan Project.

Re:One or both lied?

[cheesybagel]

This is one of those times I wish /. had an edit button. Ah well. You probably figured I wrote that bit wrong from the tone used in the rest of the post.

s/Iran has/Iran does not have/

you know... i wish this HAD happened..

[wierd_w]

Seriousy, how many billions of dollars would isreal and the US owe AC/DC and I think capitol records for unauthorized distribution and exhibition?

Are you kidding?

[spineboy]

Sic the RIAA after them - they go sue Iran, and bankrupt their nuclear program.

Re:Are you kidding?

[NalosLayor]

Or the RIAA will be crushed under wave attacks. Either way, we win.

Why would they still use Windows?

[RocketRabbit]

Jeez, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

So...

[wbr1]

...The NSA says Hells Bells, Iran is Back in Black, and not Thunderstruck. We just need Big Balls to do more Dirty Deeds. Then we can Shoot to Thrill with T.N.T and Shake Them All Night Long!

Re:So...

[Kiaser Zohsay]

Since STUXNET was designed to incorrectly calibrate centrifuges, there is a distinct possibility that the Girl's Got Rhythm.

I can send mail from aeoi.org.ir

[amorsen]

still managed to get hold of an official aeoi.org.ir email address

That is not particularly difficult. Anyone can send mail under any email address they want.

There is of course SPF and DomainKeys, but aeoi.org.ir does not resolve for me at all (not even an NS record) so those do not apply.

It was much worse

[ArhcAngel]

It wasn't Thunderstruck as first reported but actually Justin Beiber's Baby Baby. Several technicians took their own lives before the speakers could be silenced.

Thunderstruck...

[Trax3001BBS]

Thunderstruck has been my sound system(s) acid test since it's release.

Whew!

[sethmeisterg]

I'm so glad they're using a .org TLD. That means they must be working on a civilian nuclear project. Whew, I'm so relieved!