[LINK] "Computer Worm May Be Targeting Iranian Nuclear Sites"

[rfmcdonald]

Is the next stage of cyberwar being waged against Iran's nuclear program? This news has certainly sparked Daniel Drezner's interest; earlier speculations of his that there might be some quiet espionage and/or sabotage going against Iran might well have been demonstrated true.

A computer worm that has infected industrial computers around the world [Stuxnet] may be part of a campaign targeting nuclear installations in Iran, computer-security researchers said.

The highest concentration of affected systems -- almost 60 percent -- is in that country, according to data from Symantec Corp., the computer-security software maker. The worm’s sophisticated programming and ability to hide itself suggest it may have been built by a government-sponsored organization in a country such as the U.S. or Israel, said Frank Rieger, technology chief at GSMK, a maker of encrypted mobile phones.

He estimated that building the worm cost at least $3 million and required a team of as many as 10 skilled programmers working about six months.

“All the details so far to me scream that this was created by a nation-state,” Rieger said in a telephone interview. Iran’s nuclear facilities may have been targets, said Rieger and Richard Falkenrath, principal at the Chertoff Group, a Washington-based security advisory firm.

[. . .]

As it spreads, the worm searches for connections to a device known as a programmable logic controller, which helps link Windows computers and computerized industrial-control systems, converting commands sent from the Windows machine into a format the industrial machines can understand. The worm targets industrial software made by Munich-based Siemens AG, researchers said.

Once an industrial machine is infected, the worm lies dormant until certain conditions in the machine are met, O Murchu said. For example, when the temperature of a certain component gets hot, the worm might prevent a cooling system from functioning. What conditions the worm waits for are unclear, he said.

‘It was designed to go after a specific system set up in a very specific way,” O Murchu said. “What we don’t yet know is where such a system exists in the real world.”