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Is Iran Under Attack Again by the Stuxnet Computer Worm?

Dec. 26, 2012 8:34am Liz Klimas

TEHRAN, Iran (TheBlaze/AP) — An Iranian semi-official news agency says there has been another cyberattack by the sophisticated computer worm Stuxnet, this time on the industries in the country’s south.

Tuesday’s report by ISNA quotes provincial civil defense chief Ali Akbar Akhavan as saying the virus targeted a power plant and some other industries in Hormozgan province in recent months.

Akhavan says Iranian computer experts were able to “successfully stop” the worm.

Stuxnet Worm Reportedly Attacks Iran Facilities Again But Officials Claim to Stop It

In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, and released by the International Iran Photo Agency, Iranian technicians work at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran. Iran’s nuclear chief said Tuesday Nov. 23, 2010 that a malicious computer worm known as Stuxnet has not harmed the country’s atomic program and accused the West of trying to sabotage it. Reports suggest Iran was attacked by a similar worm more recently. (Photo: AP/IIPA,Ebrahim Norouzi)

Iran has repeatedly claimed defusing cyber worms and malware, including Stuxnet in 2010 and later the Flame virus that targeted the vital oil sector, which provides 80 percent of the country’s foreign revenue.

Code from Flame virus that emerged a couple years after Stuxnet. (Photo: Sebastian Widmann/dapd)

Tehran has said both worms are part of a secret U.S.-Israeli program that seeks to destabilize Iran’s nuclear program. BBC has more on this perspective in its report:

[...] Akhavan said Iranian industry was constantly being targeted by “enemy cyber attacks” and companies in Hormozgan province had recently been infiltrated, the semi-official Isna news agency reported.

“The Bandar Abbas electricity supply company has come under cyber attack,” he told a news conference. “But we were able to prevent its expansion owing to our timely measures and the co-operation of skilled hackers.”

n this Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007 file photo, an Iranian technician works at the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the city of Isfahan. Stealth power of viruses bearing names such as Stuxnet and Flame are now notorious in the world of cyber-sabotage (Photo: /Vahid Salemi, File)

The West suspects Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran denies.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

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Comments (22)

REVerse
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 10:19pm
From the movie “War Games”– “Just unplug the damned thang!” :)

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Paul -Indiana
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 4:40pm
I have suspected from the first info about Stuxnet that the Iranians were ‘allowed’ to contain it. How many levels down does it go?

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JEANNIEMAC
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 4:13pm
Better to have a computer virus stop Iran, than to have many people killed by use of major weapons.

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- G-WHIZ
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 11:53am
  ….should be….SUXTABEEYA.NET! Aah–HAH!! :-)
  
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leary1
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 4:01pm
NO WORMS, just crabs

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tomacz
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 3:41pm
atchoo!!
‘gesundheit !,,’,said walter matthau to the hijacker of pelham 123

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jblovesAmerica
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 3:02pm
Just like the USA giving the F 16′s to Eygpt-who is going to fly them.
Iran-will make the Nuke and then have it blow up in there face.
7th Century meets the 21st

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Chuck Stein
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 1:27pm
In 1978, Iran was on the road to becoming a first world nation. Led by a Shah who, if he had been a European monarch in the 18th Century, would have been described as an “enlightened despot”, Iran was developing a middle class and its economy was growing at a fast clip. By the end of 1979, though, Iran was socially in the middle ages. More than half of its population was reduced to second class status. Since 1979, Iran’s GNP has steadily decline — with a growing population. Iran left the modern world in 1979. I consider it very fitting that Iran should be denied the tools (computers) of the modern world.

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- KidCharlemagne
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 9:22pm
  You’ve obviously been watching too much propaganda:
  
  —————-
  “Many Christians in Iran are out scrambling to buy last minute presents. There are about 150,000 Christians in Iran, most of them Armenians, who celebrate Christmas in churches and at homes with family and friends.
  
  Christmas is the annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and a widely observed holiday celebrated generally on December 25th by millions around the world.
  
  In Iran Churches hold several activities for the Christian community during this festive holiday season. Although Christmas is a time usually enjoyed by children, some believe it is a joyous time even for adults.”
  “Christians celebrate Christmas in Iran”
  
  Report this comment
- Chuck Stein
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 9:44pm
  One man’s “propaganda” is another’s “news” — “propaganda” is just a label used to discredit a viewpoint that you disagree with. By the way, how does any of the propaganda ermm . . . “news” you write about Christmas in Iran run counter to what I posted about the status of women and the moribund Iranian economy since the fall of the Shah?
  
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1776freedomofspeech
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 12:48pm
Can you imagine how dirty the left sides of the keyboards in Iran are. They use their left hands to wipe. No paper is involved.

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1776freedomofspeech
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 12:45pm
Got to love the White Hats.

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Earnyourkeep
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 10:55am
Iran infected by a worm. I didn’t know Obama stopped there.

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- RamonPreston
  Posted on December 27, 2012 at 10:14pm
  No. America has been infected by THAT worm.
  
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TROONORTH
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 10:02am
These are but the opening volleys of a new kind of warfare. Let’s hope that our defenses can withstand their return broadside. And you know it is coming and coming soon.

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- DougHuffman
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 11:21am
  The interconnected networks as originally conceived and constructed could, but this FedGov utility, the Internet (soon to be the UNternet) is fragile. Its fragility is demonstrated by the failure yesterday of NetFlix and Amaxon’ AWS cloudservers.
  
  The first step is to move to a fully distributed DNS protocol.
  
  Good people ought to be armed as they will, with wits and Guns and the Truth. God Bless Bitter Clingers, damn know-nothings, progressives.
  
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- DougHuffman
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 11:34am
  If Iraqi Ahmadinnerjaket was smart, he’d take credit for taking down amaXon AWS and dare them to gainsay. “The mighty Republican Peoples of Islamic Iraq have struck a devastating blow against American virtual hegemony. Bwahaha. Allah be praised.”
  
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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 1:05pm
  Thats right TROONORTH….What goes around comes around.
  
  Golden rule is hated by those in power
  
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- 1776freedomofspeech
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 1:25pm
  @TROOSTUPID
  
  They are already attacking and have been for some years now. Time TROO wake up and smell the coffee bozo!
  
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DougHuffman
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 9:10am
Setting the stage for plausible denyability for their inevitable nuclear accident. “It wasn’t us, it was that evil hegemony and their STUXNET.”

It would appear that STUXNET is quite robust and even ANTIFRAGILE!

Suck it up if you want to run with the big dogs or get back on the Third World porch.

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progressiveslayer
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 9:01am
Sounds like the Iranians are infested with worms and viruses and it could screw up their nuclear program. It’s about time we had some good news coming out of Iran.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 9:16am
  Indeed, yet I do not see Obama turning upon his Iranian allies; so this must be Israel or them with another nation joining forces to bring down the Iranian nuke program.
  
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