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Israel has tested a computer worm believed to have sabotaged
Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and slowed its ability to develop an
atomic weapon, The New York Times reported today.
In what the Times described as a joint Israeli-US effort to
undermine Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it said the tests of the
destructive Stuxnet worm had occurred over the past two years at
the heavily guarded Dimona complex in the Negev desert.
The newspaper cited unidentified intelligence and military
experts familiar with Dimona who said Israel had spun centrifuges
virtually identical to those at Iran’s Natanz facility, where
Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium.
“To check out the worm, you have to know the machines,” an
American expert on nuclear intelligence told the newspaper. “The
reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it
out.”
Western leaders suspect Iran’s nuclear program is a cover to
build atomic weapons, but Tehran says it is aimed only at producing
electricity.
Iran’s centrifuges have been plagued by breakdowns since a rapid
expansion of enrichment in 2007 and 2008, and security experts have
speculated its nuclear program may have been targeted in a
state-backed attack using Stuxnet.
In November, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that
malicious software had created “problems” in some of Iran’s uranium
enrichment centrifuges, although he said the problems had been
resolved.
The Times said the worm was the most sophisticated cyber-weapon
ever deployed and appeared to have been the biggest factor in
setting back Iran’s nuclear march. Its sources said it caused the
centrifuges to spin wildly out of control and that a fifth of them
had been wiped out.
It added it was not clear the attacks were over and that some
experts believed the Stuxnet code contained the seeds for more
versions and assaults.
The retiring chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Meir
Dagan, said recently that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back
and that Tehran would not be able to build an atomic bomb until at
least 2015. US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, have not disputed Dagan’s view.
Neither Clinton nor Dagan mentioned Stuxnet or any other
cyber-warfare possibly used against the Iranian program.
Israel has voiced alarm over a nuclear Iran and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said only the threat of military
action will prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
Israel itself is widely believed to have built more than 200
atomic warheads at its Dimona reactor but it maintains an official
policy of “ambiguity” over whether it is a nuclear power.
Any delays in Iran’s enrichment campaign could buy more time for
efforts to find a diplomatic solution to its stand-off with six
world powers over the nature of its nuclear activities.
US and Israeli officials refused to comment officially on the
worm, the newspaper said.
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Article source: http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/israel-tested-worm-linked-iran-atom-woes-nyt-3999652?ref=rss
Category: Virus/Malware