Viruses [aka malware] are something all computer-users are used to. They can mostly be dealt with.
But a virus, Stuxnet, doing the rounds around the world has thrown up an intriguing question. Has there been a specific target? - a state-sponsored attack directed to the Iranian nuclear facility - as The Independent reports in "Has the West declared cyber war on Iran?":
"The worm, designed to spy on and subsequently reprogramme industrial systems running a specific piece of industrial control software produced by German company Siemens, has now been detected on computers in Indonesia, India and Pakistan, but more significantly Iran; 60 per cent of current infections have taken place within the country, with some 30,000 internet-connected computers affected so far, including machines at the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, due to open in the next few weeks.
Yesterday Hamid Alipour, deputy head of Iran's Information Technology Company, warned that nearly four months after it was identified, "new versions of the virus are spreading". And he claimed that the hackers responsible must have been the result of "huge investment" by a group of hostile nations.
Despite intense scrutiny of the code by malware experts, they have so far been unable to discover exactly what the intended target of Stuxnet may be, or has been. But Alan Bentley, international vice president at security firm Lumension, is in no doubt that it's "the most refined piece of malware ever discovered".
The motive is certainly not, as is usual with such attacks, financial gain or simple tomfoolery; Stuxnet is intelligent enough to target specific kinds of industrial computer systems configured in a certain way and then, if it finds what it's looking for, seek new orders to disrupt them.
Two potential targets of the worm may have been nuclear facilities within Iran at Bushehr and Natanz; indeed, a document on the website Wikileaks suggests that a nuclear accident may have occurred at Natanz during early July 2009, followed shortly afterwards by the unexplained resignation of the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation."
The Nation also covers the possibility of the US already being at war with Iran:
"Stuxnet, a virus affecting Iran's nuclear facilities, appears to be a case of sabotage. If the United States is behind it, then Obama is already at war with Iran."
But a virus, Stuxnet, doing the rounds around the world has thrown up an intriguing question. Has there been a specific target? - a state-sponsored attack directed to the Iranian nuclear facility - as The Independent reports in "Has the West declared cyber war on Iran?":
"The worm, designed to spy on and subsequently reprogramme industrial systems running a specific piece of industrial control software produced by German company Siemens, has now been detected on computers in Indonesia, India and Pakistan, but more significantly Iran; 60 per cent of current infections have taken place within the country, with some 30,000 internet-connected computers affected so far, including machines at the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, due to open in the next few weeks.
Yesterday Hamid Alipour, deputy head of Iran's Information Technology Company, warned that nearly four months after it was identified, "new versions of the virus are spreading". And he claimed that the hackers responsible must have been the result of "huge investment" by a group of hostile nations.
Despite intense scrutiny of the code by malware experts, they have so far been unable to discover exactly what the intended target of Stuxnet may be, or has been. But Alan Bentley, international vice president at security firm Lumension, is in no doubt that it's "the most refined piece of malware ever discovered".
The motive is certainly not, as is usual with such attacks, financial gain or simple tomfoolery; Stuxnet is intelligent enough to target specific kinds of industrial computer systems configured in a certain way and then, if it finds what it's looking for, seek new orders to disrupt them.
Two potential targets of the worm may have been nuclear facilities within Iran at Bushehr and Natanz; indeed, a document on the website Wikileaks suggests that a nuclear accident may have occurred at Natanz during early July 2009, followed shortly afterwards by the unexplained resignation of the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation."
The Nation also covers the possibility of the US already being at war with Iran:
"Stuxnet, a virus affecting Iran's nuclear facilities, appears to be a case of sabotage. If the United States is behind it, then Obama is already at war with Iran."
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