israel tested stuxnet at dimona

Israel took pages from spy thriller, by building identical centrifuges to those at Natanz, to test effectiveness of stuxnet worm. Cryptogon carries New York Times article. An American nuclear intelligence expert related, “To check out the worm, you have to know the machines..The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out.” In 2008, Siemens cooperated with the United States to identify vulnerabilities of their computer controllers the company sells to operate industrial machinery around the world at the Idaho National Laboratory, a leading nuclear research and development facility. The NYT article concludes: "The worm itself now appears to have included two major components. One was designed to send Iran’s nuclear centrifuges spinning wildly out of control. Another seems right out of the movies: The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators, like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing themselves apart." It's a case of life imitating art!

update: stuxnet: a violation of US computer security law

stuxnet remains problem for iran nuke sites

Cybersecurity experts in the United States report an increase in internet traffic to their websites from Iran. The experts add there appears to be, also, strenuous efforts to hide the traffic's origin. A Fox News article, "Stuxnet Worm Still Out of Control at Iran's Nuclear Sites, Experts Say", infers from the internet traffic there are still problems. The article describes the Stuxnet worm as "...equipped with a warhead that targeted and took over the controls of the centrifuge systems at Iran’s uranium processing center in Natanz, and it had a second warhead that targeted the massive turbine at the nuclear reactor in Bashehr". Ralph Langner, a German expert, believes Iranians need to throw out their computers but adds they can't, "they will just continually reinfect themselves".

stuxnet damaged centrifuges at natanz?

A frontpagemag.com post by Rich Trzupek may provide the best description of havoc wreaked by computer worm. Stuxnet, introduced most likely by flash drive, hopped computers at Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz until it reached its target. The computer worm then went to work by targeting the programmable logic controller (PLC) that controls thousands of centrifuges at the facility.

The PLC fooled centrifuges into changing speeds, and at the same time, not reporting the change or triggering alarms. "Operators were surely puzzled, for their control panels told them everything was running normally, but centrifuge after centrifuge was being wrecked by the severe changes in rotation speed. The result, many experts believe, is that thousands of the centrifuges were damaged over the course of the year..." It's widely believed only a rich nation could provide the resources for a computer worm of Stuxnet's sophistication. Ralph Langner, a computer security expert,compares it to the "arrival of a F-35 into a WWI battlefield". The scary thought is: now that the code is public, where will it turn up next?

stuxnet role in stoppage at natanz?

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report says uranium enrichment halted at Natanz facility in Iran on at least one day this month.  Space Daily website article, "Stuxnet could add to Iran's enrichment problems: experts" suggests it's experts' belief Stuxnet computer worm, which infected the facility's computer system months ago, may be contributing to stoppage?  Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies cites, on the other hand, chronic technical problems, "the Stuxnet malware appears to have contributed to these problems, but the P-1 centrifuges have intrinsic problems anyway."  Is this an early battle in cyberwarfare or just broken outmoded tech?