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Web virus aimed at nuclear work, says Tehran

28 September 2010 04:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. An internet virus that has damaged computer systems in Iran was designed by foreign governments to undermine the countryâ€™s nuclear ambitions, according to Tehran, APA reports quoting â€œFinancial Timesâ€.
As western governments continued to analyse the origins and impact of the Stuxnet malware, which has affected at least 30,000 IP addresses in Iran, an official stressed the sophisticated nature of the virus.
â€œWhen we look at the capacity of this worm, we see that itâ€™s not made up by an ordinary hacker group,â€ said Hamid Alipour, deputy head of the Iran Information Technology Company. â€œRather it is designed by a series of organisations and countries.â€
Mr Alipour did not name any country. However, some western intelligence experts believe it could have been launched from Israel, which is thought to have an advanced cyber-warfare capability.
Iran has played down reports that the virus has damaged its nuclear power station at Bushehr. But western experts are keen to know whether the virus may have affected Iranâ€™s crucial uranium enrichment site at Natanz.
Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that a cyber attack against Bushehr made no sense as its civilian reactor was not a prime concern of western governments.
However, the Natanz enrichment plant, which is at the heart of western concerns, could be vulnerable to a cyber attack. â€œThe Natanz centrifuge cascades are a very sophisticated operation that require computer programming, so I would be surprised if there was not a sophisticated set-up there that might be vulnerable,â€ he said.
It might take time before it became clear if Natanz was damaged, Mr Fitzpatrick said. â€œThere are so many problems at Natanz that if there were a computer bug issue it might not be immediately obvious.â€
US officials believe Iranâ€™s nuclear programme has encountered significant technical problems, slowing its rate of progress.
â€œThe Iranians are at kind of a plateau at the moment because of their problems,â€ said an administration official. â€œWe canâ€™t be complacent about it but we do have some time.â€
Instead of forging ahead with its programme, Iranâ€™s monthly production of low-enriched uranium has been constant at about 100kg. Meanwhile, the last report from the International Atomic Energy Agency showed another fall in the number of operational centrifuges. Iran continues to use an old variant of these enrichment machines, failing so far to move to a more efficient version.
â€œThey are doing research and development on a new generation of centrifuges but I donâ€™t think they have a machine they can bank on yet,â€ said the official.
Iran has announced that it will build up to 10 new plants for uranium enrichment. So far, however, no centrifuges have been moved into a previously secret facility at Qom. Nor has any construction started elsewhere.