Iran's nuclear programme under Stuxnet worm attack

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 27 September 2010, 22:26 IST
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Bangalore: A mysterious computer virus has attacked Iran's nuclear programme on Sunday. According to Mahmoud Jafari, Head of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, only the staff computers had been affected by the Stuxnet worm rather than the system running the reactor itself, reports Daniel Dombey of the Financial Times. Stuxnet is the first program designed to cause serious damage in the physical world. Over the past year, the worm has hit an unknown number of power plants, pipelines and factories. Since Iran has been the target for most of such infections, the virus is thought to have connected to western governments' top secret sabotage campaign against Tehran's nuclear programme. Detected in June by a security firm based in Belarus, Stuxnet have been circulating since 2009. Unlike most viruses, the worm targets systems that are traditionally not connected to the internet for security reasons. After infecting a machine, the worm seeks out a specific configuration of industrial control software made by Siemens. Once hijacked, the code can reprogram so-called PLC (programmable logic control) software to give attached industrial machinery new instructions. Experts said that the worm attack is one of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever detected. As per the report of Iran's state-run Mehr news agency, the IP addresses of 30,000 computer systems infected by the worm had also been detected. Liam O'Murchu of security firm Symantec, who has tracked the worm since it was first detected said that it is not the first time that malware has been found that affects critical infrastructure, although most incidents occur accidentally. In 2009 the U.S. government admitted that software had been found that could shut down the nation's power grid.