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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Could Iran retaliate for apparent cyber attack? |
| 2010-09-28 |
| [Al Arabiya] Iran has limited capacity to retaliate in kind to an apparent cyber attack that infected computers at its sole nuclear power plant, analysts say, but some worry it could seek to hit back by other means. Security experts say they believe the release of the Stuxnet computer worm may have been a state-backed attack on Iran's nuclear program, most likely originating in the United States or Israel. But they say the truth may never be known. Little information is available on how much damage, if any, Iran's nuclear and wider infrastructure has suffered from Stuxnet--and Tehran will probably never share the full details. Officials said on Sunday the worm had hit staff computers at the Bushehr nuclear power plant but had not affected major systems there. Some analysts believe Iran may be suffering wider sabotage aimed at slowing down its nuclear ambitions, and point to unexplained technical problems that have cut the number of working centrifuges in its uranium enrichment program. In the short term, intelligence experts believe Tehran's priority will be trying to identify the source of the attack and examining how the worm was uploaded onto its systems. "The Iranian internal security and counterintelligence departments will need to nail down the culprits first, then work out how to turn the tables," said Fred Burton, a former U.S. counterintelligence expert who is now vice president of political risk consultancy Stratfor. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 #6: #4 is correct: only early versions of BASIC were case sensitive. /College Computer Science Professor |
| Posted by: Ptah 2010-09-28 20:52 |
| #8 Just a wild thought, but suppose the Stuxnet virus was merely a warning, meant to be discovered. Someone could be sending a subtle message that ALL of Iran's computing power is corrupted with an even more devastating worm capable of far greater damage unless Iran backs off its enrichment process. After all, Short Round is suddenly willing to "accept" foreign nuclear fuel, and allowing the "used" fuel to be reprocessed elsewhere. They were strongly against this before. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2010-09-28 16:09 |
| #7 I say stone to death the virus ridden computers! Then, the other computers will act better - until HAL 9000 shows up! |
| Posted by: borgboy 2010-09-28 15:07 |
| #6 Solomon, you have a bug in your program! It should be: 10 print "Death to America!" Now since I've been so nice to you, could you please kill me last? |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-09-28 13:53 |
| #5 They couldn't do more than small time hacking that would quickly be contained. However, terrorist attacks would be more their speed and gain more traction. Especially if they happened in Western Europe. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2010-09-28 12:47 |
| #4 Please be type in this: 10 Print "Death to America!" 20 goto 10 And then Run. Ha ha! Iranian hacker skills defeat infidel West! |
| Posted by: Solomon Snish5988 2010-09-28 05:52 |
| #3 Oops |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-09-28 05:46 |
| #2 No. But they can, and do, a lot of proxy terrorism. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-09-28 05:46 |
| #1 No. But they can, and do, a lot of proxy terrorism. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-09-28 05:44 |