Stuxnet Contaminated 16,000 PCs, Claims Iran

According to one highly-placed intelligence officer from Iran, the Stuxnet worm infected an aggregate 16,000 PCs after it attacked the country's industrial plants, particularly the nuclear facilities during 2010. News Track India published this dated February 19, 2012.

Previously Tehran, capital of Iran admitted that the malware impacted only a few centrifuges, a highly important element for nuclear fuel generation, but, over time it became evident regarding the worm that it severely destroyed PCs, which regulated the centrifuges.

'Fars,' a news agency, which's half official, published the statement of a deputy head of Iranian intelligence recognized merely as Ahangaran, according to which, the Stuxnet infected 16,000 PCs, though if those were globally-based machines or simply within Iran remained unspecified.

Meanwhile, as Israel National News reported on February 18, 2012, one deputy head of intelligence stated about Iran which was getting coerced for developing its own computer safeguard applications ever-since worldwide players prohibited the country.

This' entirely distinct compared to Stuxnet's initial days whilst Tehran asserted that its investigators found as also diffused the virus prior to it being able to cause severe destruction.

Significantly, debates abounded regarding the worm's sources and intent. When 2011 was finishing, one American cyber-defense examiner made an assertion that unlike what was originally believed, the US and Israel weren't those responsible for Stuxnet rather it could be Russia.

As per specialists, the new Stuxnet ruse is definitely devised for making sure the nuclear weaponry of Iran gets weakened, possibly for getting ready to fight a physical battle, which Israel or the US may initiate vis-à-vis Iran.

Besides according to more reports, Iranian officials lately discovered two other spyware programs. These are the Duqu espionage worm that steals information and the Stars espionage worm, which implants itself within government institutions' file systems.

Overall, General Gholam Reza Jalali, Iranian civil defense agency's chief stated that Iran's specialists possessed the essential knowledge for combating cyber-attacks. Numerous worms/viruses were created globally each day that the cyber-defense HQs of Iran tracked. Thus far, those malware pieces hadn't left any damaging influence on the nation, Jalali added. Softpedia.com published this on February 21, 2012.

Related article: Stuxnet Malware Signed With JMicron Certificate

» SPAMfighter News - 2/27/2012