Monday, April 25, 2011

Computer Virus ‘Stars’ Hits Iran

Iran has been hit with new computer virus named ‘Stars.’ Mehr News Agency quoted commander of Iran’s civil defense force Qolam Reza Jalali that the experts were still investigating the scope of the malware’s capabilities and damages caused. Jalali did not disclose the targets and the dates of the attack.

"Certain characteristics about the 'Stars' virus have been identified, including that it is compatible with the system," Jalali said. "In the initial stage, the damage is low and it is likely to be mistaken for governmental executable files," he added [Mehr News Agency, 25 April].

In December, Iran admitted the country’s uranium enrichment plant in Natanz had been the victim of the computer worm Stuxnet.

"Confronting the Stuxnet virus does not mean that the threat has been fully removed, since viruses have a certain life span and it is possible that they continue their activity in a different form," Jalali commented.

4 comments:

reader said...

As far as I know, this is not a new virus. It’s been around for a number years and most off-the-shelf and many free anti-virus software should be able to zap it right away. It is completely of a different class of virus than Stuxnet. I sometimes wish, Jalali et al. were more sophisticated in their use of language and for the sake of the nation equip themselves with some basic and elementary understanding of how viruses and worms operate. What does he mean when says:

“It is compatible with the system!”, “It is likely to be mistaken for governmental executable files!” ??????!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Love it.:]

Anonymous said...

it didn't hit, it was caught.

Like an attempted murder is not a murder, its a try .. dig ??

jonwilson said...

With potent viruses like these floating around the net, it pays to be extra careful. Thankfully, there are email filtering services.