Isreal's Tests on Worm crucula to Iran Nuclear delay

1. 89

   Stacie Lposted 13 years ago

   Israel Tests on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay
   By WILLIAM J. BROAD, JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID E. SANGER
   Published: January 15, 2011
   
    
   
   This article is by William J. Broad, John Markoff and David E. Sanger.
   
   Nicholas Roberts for The New York Times
   
   Ralph Langner, an independent computer security expert, solved Stuxnet.
   
   How Stuxnet Spreads
   
   The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israels never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal.
   
   Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role  as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Irans efforts to make a bomb of its own.
   
   Behind Dimonas barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Irans at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Irans nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehrans ability to make its first nuclear arms.
   
   To check out the worm, you have to know the machines, said an American expert on nuclear intelligence.The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out.
   
   Though American and Israeli officials refuse to talk publicly about what goes on at Dimona, the operations there, as well as related efforts in the United States, are among the newest and strongest clues suggesting that the virus was designed as an American-Israeli project to sabotage the Iranian program.
   
   In recent days, the retiring chief of Israels Mossad intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton separately announced that they believed Irans efforts had been set back by several years. Mrs. Clinton cited American-led sanctions, which have hurt Irans ability to buy components and do business around the world.
   
   this is a lengthy article so read the rest here..
   
   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world … .html?_r=1
   
   in essence,Israel,developed a computer worm to try to stop or slow down Iran's Nuclear arms development program...

   replyreport
2. 89

   Stacie Lposted 13 years ago

   ok, the mistyped word in the title is "crucial"....wish we could edit titles..my fingers are not cooperating today

   replyreport
3. 61

   knolyourselfposted 13 years ago

   "Once the virus was deployed, it had partial, not complete
   success in damaging the Iranian nuclear effort.
   
   In late November, Mahmoud Ahmadinejead reported,
   
   " "[Iran's enemies] succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with the software they had installed in electronic parts," Ahmadinejad said. "They did a bad thing. Fortunately our experts discovered that, and today they are not able [to do that] anymore."
   
   it is estimated that almost 1000 of the centrifuges were damaged.
   
   The times wrote, as the title states, this is "the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever deployed."
   
   Ced Kurtz, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes, "Taking out a tenth of the centrifuges at the Iranian facility is comparable to an air strike. Now that is war."
   
   In the past, if a government attacked another nation's factory, that would be considered an act of war.
   
   Now, we are faced with a situation in which the US collaborated with Israel to build a cyberweapon that caused millions, perhaps billions in damage to Iran.
   
   Teheran knew in November that the Stuxnet worm had caused the destruction. Now, with the NY Times report, if not before, Iran is faced with a decision. Will it take the cyberattack as an act of war? If so, will it respond in kind? If so, it is likely that Iran will source cyberweapons where it can find them, as it has sourced weapons construction resources from places like Pakistan and North Korea.
   
   One place Iran may seek powerful cyberweapons is China. There, the Chinese have access to tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of computers which have Green Dam software installed on them. While this is purportedly to protect the young from pornography, it provides a point of easy access to millions of computers, which COULD be used to initiate incredibly power denial of service attacks and other malevolent efforts. It is inconceivable that the US and G20 nation not know the cyberweapon potential of the combined installations of millions of Green Dam Software.
   
   That reality suggests that the Stuxnet worm is a tiny tip of a massive, and fast growing iceberg of Cyberwarfare technologies. It is very likely that before long, tens of millions of computers, very likely including smart phones and notepads, in the US and throughout the world will, unknown to their users, include software code, lying silent, in wait for commands, that will be used to launch attack on targets the computer owners know nothing of, as is done with common computer virus mediated denial of service attacks. The difference will be that these attacks will be government or military initiated.
   
   The question is, will these attacks be considered attacks that signal the start of wars?
   
   
   
   Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com"

   replyreport
   1. 61

      Shahid Bukhariposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      To the "Learned" People ...
      
      Don't you have anything better to do ... or to say ...
      than grinding your War Axes ...  Teasing ... Testing ... Prompting ... Fellow humans ... in these troubled Times ?
      
      Do you think you can Start a War ... you can win ?
      Has any people ever won a War in Human Known ?

      replyreport
4. 0

   china manposted 13 years ago

   What is more to the point is bare-faced hypocrisy of the US in supplying Israel with nuclear weapons and weapon technolgy in the most unstable part of hte world while making such load noises about others trying to develop them and the powers who might be helping them.
   
   Looks like a fast-track programme to ensure the war to end all wars comes as soon as possible  -  does the Jewish religion have the same doomsday scenario as the babble-thumpers ?

   replyreport
   1. 61

      zduckmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      YES ...no one speaks of the fact that Israel has weapons of mass destruction...and uses them. Thjey have used white phosphorus against civilians.

      replyreport
5. 77

   lovemychrisposted 13 years ago

   I have read that is was the US that manufactured that phosphorous and gave it to them.
   And then we dismissed the Goldstone Report about it, as if we and Israel can do whatever we want and get away with it!
   
   Ooops, hello---Bush Neo-Con Dual-Citizen admnistration.....9/11....Iraq....Torture....
   
   I geuss we CAN.

   replyreport