Western leaders continue to argue among themselves about whether military
action against is justified, most recently in the light of a report by the
International Atomic Energy Agency last week which claimed to have evidence
Iran was developing technology to fit nuclear warheads to missiles.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said Britain was not yet “calling for,
or advocating, military action.” But he added: “At the same time, we are
saying that all options are on the table.”
Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, on the other hand said harsh
sanctions were unavoidable in the absence of Iranian co-operation with the
IAEA but said he would not consider military intervention.
Even the Israeli cabinet is split, with the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and defence minister Ehud Barak said to be in favour, but a majority
against.
The Stuxnet virus altered the speed at which the enriching centrifuges spun
until they were out of control. It was so sophisticated that the experts who
discovered it said it could only have been the work of an advanced, probably
national, sabotage programme.
It has been widely reported that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, was
responsible, with help from American and British counterparts.
According to computer virus experts, duqu operates differently, though using
some of the same code to infiltrate computers, sending back further
information to its handlers rather than breaking down systems.
First spotted in September by academics in Budapest, it was spread through an
infected Microsoft Word document. It has also struck in India, France and
Ukraine.
The computer security firm Symantec, which has been the lead investigator on
Stuxnet and Duqu, said the new virus seemed aimed at gaining the user remote
access to computer systems.
“It is apparent to Symantec that the authors of this new threat had access to
the Stuxnet source code, not just Stuxnet binaries,” it said, hinting that
the authors of the two viruses might be the same.
“Duqu’s purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities, such
as industrial control system manufacturers, in order to more easily conduct
a future attack against another third party.
“The attackers are looking for information such as design documents that could
help them mount a future attack on an industrial control facility. Thus,
Duqu is essentially the precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack.”
If the virus is a Mossad creation, Israeli leaders may have another reason to
congratulate themselves. While not claiming responsibility, they have done
nothing to hide their glee at a series of “problems” faced by Iran’s weapons
and nuclear programmes.
An explosion at a missile base on Saturday killed 17 members of the
Revolutionary Guard, including the brigadier-general in charge of missile
development, Hassan Moghaddam. The incident’s similarity to an explosion at
a major base housing long-range Shahab-3 missiles in October of last year
triggered speculation both were the work of Mossad.
“I don’t know the extent of the explosion,” Ehud Barak, the defence minister,
told military radio on Sunday night. “But it would be desirable if they
multiply.”
View full post on National Cyber Security » Virus/Malware/Worms
