An image from Symantec showing the geographic impact of Stuxnet
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In a report published Monday by Iran’s Mehr News Agency, an Iranian general involved in investigating the Stuxnet worm, which targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure last year, said the country has been targeted by a second worm, called Stars.
Quoted in the Mehr report, Brigadier General Gholam-Reza Jalali, director of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization says the country’s experts detected and are investigating the new worm, though little is known of it at this point.
In the Mehr report, Jalali claims that “certain characteristics about the Stars worm have been identified, including that it is compatible with the (targeted) system and that the damage is very slight in the initial stage.”
According to several reports, western security experts have been unable to confirm at this point whether Iran has identified a new attack, and if so, whether it is indeed one designed to specifically target Iran.
Cybersecurity has been a priority for Iran since last September, when the country was struck by the Stuxnet worm, which had its greatest impact by far in Iran, and is generally believed to have been written to target the country’s industrial and nuclear infrastructure. The worm is designed to target and sabotage specific industrial systems, including power plants.
Jalali said the new attack had caused no crashes or serious damage to the country’s industrial computer systems. However, he says, the more recent Stars attack is an indicator that the company “should prepare itself to tackle future worms,” since they “could be more dangerous than the first ones.”
In other comments throughout the report, Jalali says that Siemens, the maker of the systems that were infected by the original Stuxnet worm, “should be held responsible,” for the attack’s success. He also indicates that he believes the governments of the US and Israel to be behind Stuxnet’s creation.
Many experts agree that the complexity of the Stuxnet worm – one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks ever created – seems to suggest that a foreign government was involved. However, the worm’s creators have not been identified.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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