Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Iran Calls for IAEA Investigation of Stuxnet Attack

In an address to a government-sponsored nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran on Monday, Ali Bagheri, the deputy director of Iran’s national security council, called on IAEA to open an investigation on the Stuxnet attack on the country’s nuclear facilities and the people behind the attack. Bagheri called the attackers “nuclear terrorists.” [Xinhua, 14 June].

Bagheri’s request was in effect the highest-level official announcement that the Stuxnet worm had infected the computers at Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had previously denied reports that Stuxnet had affected the nuclear computer systems. The computer worm is specifically written to attack Windows-based SCADA systems which are used to control and monitor industrial processes, including those used in nuclear facilities.

4 comments:

William deB. Mills said...

Whatever one's opinion of the Tehran regime, the West's response to this request matters. If the IAEA refuses to investigate the issue, it effectively defines Iran as a country to be discriminated against, a country that cannot be welcomed into the community of nations even if it plays by that community's rules.

Such treatment only encourages those Iranians who want international tensions and who advocate the destruction of the current global political system.

This is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate to Iran that it can benefit from cooperating with the international community.

I wonder how a truly independent IAEA could possibly handle this issue with professionalism?

reader said...

It would be virtually impossible to nail down an individual or organization responsible for Stuxnet. Knowing the outcome in advance, IAEA may decide to launch an investigation to demonstrate its independence and professionalism, without the risk of displeasing a key club member responsible for the Stuxnet.

The irony of it all is that those responsible for the Stuxnet attack had legitimized a new form of industrial warfare, one to which they themselves are also highly vulnerable. The variants of the Stuxnet can easily be manufactured by cyber criminals or Al-Queda like organizations to target civilian infrastructures and even life saving equipment.

Anonymous said...

lol. The IAEA probably helped implement stuxnet.

Anonymous said...

According to Amadinejad... wasn't stuxnet just a tiny virus that Iranian scientists took care of months ago?