‘Stuxnet virus set back Iran’s nuclear program by 2 years'

jpost.com ^ | 12/14/10 | Yaakov Katz

[Nachum]

The Stuxnet virus, which has attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities and which Israel is suspected of creating, has set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program by two years, a top German computer consultant who was one of the first experts to analyze the program’s code told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "It will take two years for Iran to get back on track," Langer said in a telephone interview from his office in Hamburg, Germany. "This was nearly as effective as a military strike, but even better since there are no fatalities and no full-blown war."

[reagan_fanatic]

God bless Israel, and may she have an even more damaging virus in the works for Iran.

[Secret Agent Man]

I sure hope to God it’s two years, here’s hoping to more than that.

And here’s to more dead Iranian nuclear scientists. Prayers for those who are pulling that off. May they nail every damn one they go after, and then some.

[BJClinton]

set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program by two years

Heh. Just in time for us to get a real president.

[Trajan88]

I hope every computer in Iran has the blue screen of death... with a constant re-boot resulting in the blue screen of death... those thugs deserve that hell.

[MrDem]

God bless Israel This is just too ingenious not to have been GOD INSPIRED! Just as Handel's Messiah is too incredibly glorious to have come from Handel himself.

[arthurus]

Jews vs. Arabs in a cyberwar. Advantage...? hmmmmm. A “race” whose members have selected for brains for millennia vs a “race” that has been inbred, incestuous, and aggressively non-curious for millenniua. The war is a mental one. One side is not well armed. Israel(if Israel it was) has, indeed, “bombed” Iran.

[cruise_missile]

From Symantec:

Functionality:

The worm also attempts to spread by copying itself to network shares protected by weak passwords.

The primary purpose of the Stuxnet worm is to take control of industrial facilities. Interestingly, one would expect the malware authors to design malware that would target only computers running the software that controls these facilities. However, like any other garden variety worm, it spreads indiscriminately using the vulnerability mentioned above. Historic data from the early days of the Stuxnet worm attack showed that Iran, Indonesia and India accounted for the bulk of the countries where computers were targeted.

Incredibly, Stuxnet exploits four zero-day vulnerabilities, which is unprecedented.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-071400-3123-99

[rawhide]

Very very doubtful that this sets them back 2 years. More likely a couple of months or less, at most.

[ReneeLynn]

Wikileaks be afraid of Israel. Be very afraid. I love the Israelis.

[Jumper]

Why does everyone think this program was inserted after the manufacture sent the product to the buyer, e.g., Iran and others? It is common practice to place a “fail-safe” mechanism into products to prevent their misuse. GM’s On-Star service may in actuality provide much data on your location of vehicle, status of oil, tire pressure, etc. Cheers.

[Celtic Conservative]

Perhaps offer the Iranians a "virus removal tool" that is itself a virus, or something along those lines?

CC

[saintgermaine]

ONLY two years, what a shame!

[Jimmy Valentine]

Programs like Stuxnet will play a major role in future conflicts. They will beevery bit as important as bombsand bullets.

[Tzfat]

I love the Israelis.

LOL. So does the King of the Universe.