Iran Allegedly Hit By Computer Virus More Violent Than Stuxnet (timesofisrael.com)

TTL0 shares a report from The Times of Israel: Iranian infrastructure and strategic networks have come under attack in the last few days by a computer virus similar to Stuxnet but "more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated," and Israeli officials are refusing to discuss what role, if any, they may have had in the operation, an Israeli TV report said Wednesday. "Remember Stuxnet, the virus that penetrated the computers of the Iranian nuclear industry?" the report on Israel's Hadashot news asked. Iran "has admitted in the past few days that it is again facing a similar attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before, that has hit infrastructure and strategic networks." The Iranians, the TV report went on, are "not admitting, of course, how much damage has been caused." On Sunday, Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran's civil defense agency, said Tehran had neutralized a new version of Stuxnet, Reuters reported. Stuxnet penetrated Iran's nuclear program, "taking control and sabotaging parts of its enrichment processes by speeding up its centrifuges," the report notes. We'll update this story when more details become available.

Comments

Re: Those in glass houses

[Anonymous Coward]

There will never be adequate protections in place because the surface area is so great, and software is NEVER EVER bug free. The nature of software bugs is that they lay hidden in wait. Developers get shuffled around or leave, others interface with their systems or cobble in new features with imperfect knowledge. Bugs are born. Not to mention the chance , which has been known to happen, where someone is paid to embed a bug. Devs could even embed an obscure bug in hopes of collecting a 6 figure bug bounty in the future as a form of retirement investment. Our reliance and trust on computers is our Achilles heel.

What now?

[AndyKron]

How is this not an act of war? Then again, Israel is constantly engaged in acts of war against Iran.

Re:Overly Dramatic Headline

[cascadingstylesheet]

A computer virus may stop your computer from working but its not "violent" - its not going to walk up and punch you.

With the "internet of things" now, who knows?

It may try to microwave you or slam your garage door on you, anyway ...

Stuxnet was targetted against Germany

[ghoul]

It specifically targetted Siemens controllers the Iranians had bought. It ensured that for the future the Iranians would either buy American controllers on the black market or use non-western controllers which there was a lesser chance of the US/Israel having source code to.
The Germans were pissed about Stuxnet as it killed their market for controllers around the world.

Re:Stuxnet was targetted against Germany

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't ever want to be seen as defending Siemens, but for the sake of accuracy I would say their security overall is about average for the industry. The problem is that the industry average is incredibly low.

And now we know why Kerry was in Iran

[ghoul]

He was handing out infected USB drives.

No real reason for him to be there given he has no official post in the US govt anymore so maybe hes supplementing his retirement with a little freelance cyberterrorism

Re:Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

[HornWumpus]

Back in the 80s. IBM brought out a new harddrive they claimed was bulletproof.

Somebody figured the platter resonance frequency and 'tacoma narrows bridged' it with head motion during a demo.