Stuxnet Was Designed To Subtly Interfere With Uranium Enrichment 334
ceswiedler writes "Wired is reporting that the Stuxnet worm was apparently designed to subtly interfere with uranium enrichment by periodically speeding or slowing specific frequency converter drives spinning between 807Hz and 1210Hz. The goal was not to cause a major malfunction (which would be quickly noticed), but rather to degrade the quality of the enriched uranium to the point where much of it wouldn't be useful in atomic weapons. Statistics from 2009 show that the number of enriched centrifuges operational in Iran mysteriously declined from about 4,700 to about 3,900 at around the time the worm was spreading in Iran."
Re:Resources, will, and motive (Score:3, Interesting)
Is there any proof that the virus indeed runs on the facility? Is there any proof that the nuclear incident really did take place? Is there any proof that the number of operational centrifuges really went down (as opposed to e.g. bringing the "defect" centrifuges to a secret place, so even if the original place was physically attacked, they could continue with enrichment)?
Maybe it was the Iranian intelligence which created StuxNet (and in that case probably also a special protection system making sure it never hits its "target") in order to make everyone in the world think they are far behind in their nuclear program (and to have a plausible explanation for the reduction of operational centrifuges, so no one gets the idea to look for them elsewhere)?
Re:Resources, will, and motive (Score:3, Interesting)
i would rule out russia - because russians were involved in building Busher's nuclear power plant, and they'd have no interest sabotaging something they are responsible to complete by the contract terms...
But according to TFA, the target wasn't Bushehr's nuclear power plant, but the Natanz nuclear facilities. Unless Russia was involved there, too, that makes your argument moot.
frequency converter drives ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Resources, will, and motive (Score:3, Interesting)
But the specificity means you need a lot of information about your target. You must know what the targeted facility looks like, and what can be used to distinguish it from other facilities. So the question is: Who did have that information at the time Stuxnet was written?
Re:Resources, will, and motive (Score:4, Interesting)
[Hypothetical Russian Contractor]:"Well, this Stuxnet worm is nasty stuff, so obviously it's going to cost a lot of money for us to clean it up. Of course, an event like this was not covered in our contract so we will need additional funding to proceed."
Yeah, what motivation could Russia possibly have?
Re:Resources, will, and motive (Score:2, Interesting)
It's equally likely neither Russia nor China would be very happy to see a nuclear Iran, but not want to be visibly seen discouraging them on the international stage. Stuxnet, lets either of them slow Iran's nuclear program, test a new concept of warfare, and leave the US and Israel holding the bad as "most likely." For them it's a win-win-win. Beyond that, intelligence orgainizations in the West now have a small taste of what someone else can do. It's going to keep the West in knots for a few years, hardening against "the last threat," while they've got the next threat now, and are working on the one beyond that.
i don't think russia cares, seeing as it helped get it working.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushehr_Nuclear_Power_Plant [wikipedia.org]
Re:The problem with computer sabotage... (Score:4, Interesting)
Because international affairs are NOT like a Hollywood action film, where the hero blows the villain up in the last 15 minutes of action, and then rides off happily into the sunset with the girl. In real life actions have results. Look at the state the US got into on the international scene when all the stories about deception and torture in Iraq started coming out. Don't you think that the Iranians will present this as an act of war, and use it in every diplomatic conference for the next 20 years?
As I see it, if Iran whines about this in a diplomatic conference, they'll be laughed out of the room, not only because they don't know who did it, not only because it indicates great sloppiness on the part of the Iranians military program, but because the only people outside of Iran who will care will only be concerned that the sabotage wasn't more effective.
Re:Do you want economic collapse? (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually entirely agree with you, but you shouldn't present it that way, as it will be taken as antisemitism, and isn't fair to ascribe to 'Jews'. Jews in the US are actually mostly on the left, and antiwar.
This mistaken belief that 'Jews' support Israel doing whatever it wants is due to the Israeli lobby in US, which like to claim that all Jews think the way it does. Which isn't true in the US or Israeli.
Most Jews, in both the US and Israel, are nowhere near as hostile to Muslim countries as the Israeli lobby tries to pretend is 'necessary for Israel's defense'. Most Jews in the US don't care about any of those warmongering issues at all, and Jews in Israel care about Palestine and maybe Lebanon. Not Iran. In fact, Israelis are much less likely to think Iran will attack Israel than Americans.
The neocon right in the US, the hardliners in Israel, and fanatic Muslim leaders, all have incentive to present Israel, supported by the US, at war with the Muslim world. They are all lying goddamn warmongers manipulating every out-of-context quote(1) and event(2) and wishing for an all-out war in the Middle East. Do not help them in any way. Don't assume 'Jews' actually want this.
1) No, the leader of Iran doesn't want to wipe Israel off the map, he wishes it would, in an analogy he made in every speech except the one time he didn't further explain it, disappear like the USSR. Yet warmongers here distorted that into a threat of nuclear annihilation.
2) And no, Qu'ran burning is not encouraged or even condoned by the US government, it was actually condemned. It's just, in the US, the government has no power to stop any display of religion. Yet warmongers in Yemen distorted that into an official government act.