It is too early to assess what, if any, damage has taken place in Iran because of the secrecy of the Iranian regime. Based on the delay of the opening of the Bushehr nuclear reactor, it appears that Stuxnet at a minimum has slowed down the Iranian nuclear program, because of real or perceived damage.
There is emerging, however, real human damage caused by Stuxnet. The Iranian regime has turned on its own scientific community, announcing an unspecified number of arrests in an attempt to find those responsible for introducing Stuxnet into seemingly secure computer systems. DEBKAFile, which is not always reliable but has been ahead of the curve on this issue, also is reporting that in response to the Iranian crackdown some Russian nuclear support personnel have been leaving Iran.
In addition to whatever real damage Stuxnet may have on computer systems, the malware may create a mini-purge in Iranian scientific ranks which, much like Stalin's paranoid purge of the Soviet military in the 1930s, is self-defeating.
When the Iranians see a room full of Iranian and Russian scientists sitting at computer terminals, the Iranians now see a room full of potential spies.
Stuxnet has made the jump from computers to humans, so expect to see the Iranians start to consume their own.
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Has anyone else but me considered the Russians as the daddy of this virus? ...either by direct creation and release or via information supplied to Israel and/or the US?
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a military cooperation agreement signed on or about Sept 6, 2010 between Israel and Russia?
Who else has the indepth knowledge of Iran's reactor inner workings and subsystems if not the creator?
Let me give them a resounding "Hallelujah!" And I hope they also understand that every scientist on their nuclear team is actually a Jew who drinks the blood of Iranian children for breakfast!
ReplyDeleteThe 13th imam hardest hit.
ReplyDeleteStuxnet is said to be spreading to Indonesia and India (at least). It's thought that Russian technicians took USB drives that were infected to those countries.
ReplyDeleteThere are rumors that it's also spread to China.
Your point about sowing discord and suspicion is a good one - security is often accused of keeping things from getting done. It's not much to make that a feature, not a bug.
Let me guess, they'll purge the ones most likely to know what they are doing. They'll fuss around with the systems untill the pressure to produce becomes to great, and then someone will geek and they'll fire the system up. Then centrifuge will come apart or the core will overheat.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I feel a great deal of sympathy for the scientists and engineers who are working on this project. I suspect the virus was developed by Israel as it suits their needs perfectly. I wish their computer war with Iran goes well.
ReplyDeleteNote that we better be prepared to deal with this sort of attack ourselves. The bottle has been opened, this will come and get us at some point.
What Stuxnet has done more than anything else, is to expand the strategic discussion - not just for this particular battle, but for all future battles as well.
ReplyDeleteInternet Anthropologist has much more on Stuxnet.......http://warintel.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteConfused. Iran wasn't purging its own for the past thirty one years?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this was aimed for, just hoped for, or an unanticipated bonus, but this development may be the biggest part of the delay the Iranian regime will suffer.
ReplyDeleteHigh five!
And this is a bad thing because....?
ReplyDeleteThe true weakness of these programs has never been the hardware but the scientists that run them. They are quite literally irreplaceable. If some idiot in the Iranian Gov. decides that all scientists, especially foreign scientists, are not to be trusted then progress comes to a screeching halt.