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Iran Allegedly Hit By Computer Virus More Violent Than Stuxnet (timesofisrael.com) 181

Posted by BeauHD from the only-time-will-tell dept.
TTL0 shares a report from The Times of Israel: Iranian infrastructure and strategic networks have come under attack in the last few days by a computer virus similar to Stuxnet but "more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated," and Israeli officials are refusing to discuss what role, if any, they may have had in the operation, an Israeli TV report said Wednesday. "Remember Stuxnet, the virus that penetrated the computers of the Iranian nuclear industry?" the report on Israel's Hadashot news asked. Iran "has admitted in the past few days that it is again facing a similar attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before, that has hit infrastructure and strategic networks." The Iranians, the TV report went on, are "not admitting, of course, how much damage has been caused." On Sunday, Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran's civil defense agency, said Tehran had neutralized a new version of Stuxnet, Reuters reported. Stuxnet penetrated Iran's nuclear program, "taking control and sabotaging parts of its enrichment processes by speeding up its centrifuges," the report notes. We'll update this story when more details become available.
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Iran Allegedly Hit By Computer Virus More Violent Than Stuxnet More

Iran Allegedly Hit By Computer Virus More Violent Than Stuxnet

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  • What acts of violence has this virus committed? The linked article was rather short on detail, although it did describe several instances of violent behavior on behalf of various associated meatba^H^H^H^H^H^H humans.

    The most violent thing I ever saw a program do was to toggle the tape selector input relay on the System 80 computer, rapidly, to make a loud buzzing noise, and eventually destroy the relay.

  • advanced (Score:5, Funny)

    by Andy Smith ( 55346 ) on Friday November 02, 2018 @05:27AM (#57579732)

    more advanced AND more sophisticated?

    DAMN...

    • Re:advanced (Score:5, Funny)

      by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Friday November 02, 2018 @08:03AM (#57580230) Journal

      It wrecks your centrifuges even faster, and smokes a cigarette in a dinner jacket while doing it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hAckz0r ( 989977 )

      That's right. This new virus is so "sophisticated" that it can even damage the centrifuges that are packed away in storage and not currently running. But wait, the next software update will even damage the ones the Iranians have not even been ordered yet. That'll show them!
      /s

      After all, the Iranians would not lie to us would they? Then why would Ayatollah Ali Khamenei worry about a cyber attack on an infrustructure that should not currently be running?

  • That's what you get (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02, 2018 @05:27AM (#57579736)

    For looking at Burka pr0n on work machines.

  • Those in glass houses (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02, 2018 @05:30AM (#57579748)

    Our entire economy is integrated with computers now. Throwing open the doors on destructive attackâ(TM)s to cripple a govt/economy is just stupid, we are way more vulnerable to this shit and no we do not have adequate protections in place.

    • Re: Those in glass houses (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There will never be adequate protections in place because the surface area is so great, and software is NEVER EVER bug free. The nature of software bugs is that they lay hidden in wait. Developers get shuffled around or leave, others interface with their systems or cobble in new features with imperfect knowledge. Bugs are born. Not to mention the chance , which has been known to happen, where someone is paid to embed a bug. Devs could even embed an obscure bug in hopes of collecting a 6 figure bug bounty

      • We need more and more features (Score:4, Insightful)

        by aberglas ( 991072 ) on Friday November 02, 2018 @06:05AM (#57579830)

        The more features software has the better. Eventually it will become so complicated that even the virus writers will not be able to understand it.

        But writing Stuxnet was an appalling thing to do because it legitimized state sponsored computer attacks as being legitimate and non-military. The west cannot take high moral ground about them having launched Stuxnet against Iran. And Stuxnet only slowed them down by a few months anyway, despite being extremely clever. It also escaped, and was discovered in Russia, by memory.

        So the only thing to do is spend lots more money on cyber warfare. So I guess the Stuxnet team was extremely successful in achieving that, its real goal.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by gtall ( 79522 )

          Yeah, not even the Russkies would have thought to use something like Stuxnet if we hadn't shown them how.

          Oh, how we may lament the thought of losing the high moral ground in computer security. If we still had that, by gum that'd have stopped'em.

    • just not with computers. The shit America's done around the world to destabilize it in the name of our economic interests (oil mostly) is insane. I've lost count of how many Democratically elected governments we've overthrown. By all accounts we just installed a dictator in Brazil (there's strong evidence we helped torpedo their progressive President and paved the way for the far right whack job that just took office). And of course it was us that radicalized Iran. We installed a puppet regime and when the

    • Specifically, all the zero-day exploits in the "arsenal" of the CIA and friends are simply bugs that they could fix to make the USA more secure. They could inform the maintainers, make patches, and close security holes. But they don't, as seen with the vault7 leak. Instead they hoard these things in a hope to use them offensively against others. Who knows who else has found the exact same security holes. It's the part where they choose not to make citizens more secure in exchange for... well... things lik

  • What now? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 )
    How is this not an act of war? Then again, Israel is constantly engaged in acts of war against Iran.

    • Re:What now? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02, 2018 @06:06AM (#57579834)

      How is this not an act of war? Then again, Israel is constantly engaged in acts of war against Iran.

      Funny how it's the leaders of Iran who have literally vowed to conduct genocide and "wipe Israel off the map".

      And then Iran created a proxy army (Hezbollah) that actually is trying to do just that.

      Kinda strange how you missed that.

      But hey, you're not an anti-Semite. You just blindly support a medieval bunch of homophobic misogynists in their attempt to kill Jews because the fucking Koran says so.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ph1ll ( 587130 )

        "Experts confirm that Iran's president did not call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map''" The Guardian, 14 June 2006 [theguardian.com].

        There are many reasons to criticize Iran but a constantly quoted mistranslation is not one of them.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          "Experts confirm that Iran's president did not call for Israel to be 'wiped off the map''" The Guardian, 14 June 2006 [theguardian.com].

          There are many reasons to criticize Iran but a constantly quoted mistranslation is not one of them.

          Knock it off.

          This is the exact quote: [wikipedia.org]

          Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine. Is it possible to create a new front in the heart of an old front. This would be a defeat and whoever accepts the legitimacy of this regime has in fact, signed the defeat of the Islamic world. Our dear Imam targeted the heart of the world oppressor in his struggle, meaning the occupying regime. I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world.

          "wiped off the map" wasn't an isolated case. The sentiment is repeated in the statement multiple times, so hanging your hat on the exact translation is somewhere between specious bullshit and disingenuous chicanery.

          And even then, that "wiped off the map" has been used and has continued to be used by Iran:

          The Iranian presidential website stated: "the Zionist Regime of Israel faces a deadend and will under God's grace be wiped off the map," and "the Zionist Regime that is a usurper and illegitimate regime and a cancerous tumor should be wiped off the map."[84]

          Iran had used the phrase "Israel must be wiped off the map" previously as well. In 1999, a military parade carried slogans that read "Israel must be wiped off the map" in Farsi and English.[85]

          Joshua Teitelbaum of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs discovered pictures of Iranian propaganda banners that clearly say in English: "Israel should be wiped out of the face of the world."[86][87]

          In March 2016, Iran tested a ballistic missile painted with the phrase "Israel should be wiped off the Earth" in Hebrew. The missile is reported to be capable of reaching Israel.

          Other Ahmadinejad quotes follow. I'll pass on the Holocaust denial ones, because they don't directly address Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's clear calls for and support of the l

        • From your link: "the regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time"

          I'd prefer to be wiped off the face off the map than to be wiped out of history. Now what typically happens when something is horribly mistranslated is that someone comes out and says "I didn't say that". Do you have a link to that?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        1. Koran doesn't say kill the Jews!
        2. Opposing Israel doesn't make you an anti-semite. it just makes you a rational person that hates terrorists, and yes Israel is involved in a lot of acts of terror, as well as Iran and US and Saudi and lots of other countries.
        3. Hezbollah is not wiping Israel off the map! they are fighting for Palestinians, which Israel is trying to wipe off the map.

        You had 4 sentences, 3 of them wrong. Congratulations! you passed the bar to become the next president of the United states.

      • So fast to throw the antisemite card, over nothing. He said nothing that justifies you calling him that. I guess this is the world we live in now, everyone accusing each other of being the worst and most extreme thing you can think of, hoping you'll be seen as the victim and still hold the moral high ground despite the unreasonable aggressive response that's inevitably coming. In short: people enjoy being bullies too much

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hey! ( 33014 )

        Iran's government is extremely complicated, combining elements of democracy, republicanism, and theocracy. The Iranian Constitution reflects a deep-seated Shia ambivalence toward authority -- both a longing for it and a distrust of it.

        So the thing Americans on both sides of our political divide tend to miss is that Iran has internal politics too. The Iranian Republic in a way resembles the Roman republic, with a confusing profusion of specialized legislative and judicial bodies, all potentially under the

      • Hey, you're not a fucking mossad shill posting as AC to call the dude an anti-Semites when he calls attention to the pig fuckingly illegal actions of Bibi and you pissant little neofascist regime there in Israel.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fred911 ( 83970 )

      How is this not an act of war? Then again, Israel is constantly engaged in acts of war against Iran.

      Obviously. Their best defense is a proactive offense. Someone has to be responsible for common sense.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • How is this not an act of war?

      It is an act of war, just as killing [bbc.co.uk] people in [bbc.co.uk] other [wikipedia.org] countries is [highbeam.com] war. But: we just don't talk much about it if it is done by countries that we like, or do a lot of business with; or even if done by our own country.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 )

      Israel gets away with it because they have the most powerful military nation in the world standing behind them. If it wasn't for Western guilt over the atrocities that happened in WWII, Israel would be viewed as a dangerous pariah state by the West, but it's politically "insensitive" to think of them as the bully-state they've become. The attempted genocide guilt does belong to all the West- anti Semitism was rife across most Western nations in the 30's, if it wasn't Germany, it could easily have happened

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Hezzabola launches rockets at schools for 5 year olds in Israel (supplied by Iran), not a peep from you.
        Israel uses a computer virus to prevent WMDs from being created and used on them, they are the most evil people ever according to you.

        THIS is what anti-Semitism looks like folks.

        story 1 [newsweek.com]
        story 2 [timesofisrael.com]
        I went looking for the story I remember a couple years ago, all I could find was it happening TWICE this year, but as long as Jews are targeted you seem to be cool with it.

        • Hezzabola launches rockets at schools for 5 year olds in Israel (supplied by Iran), not a peep from you.

          Both sides do evil despicable acts. Palestine hasn't been some saintly state in all this- they have muck and blood on their hands too. Some anti Israeli factions are resorting to terrorism to try and free their people. I don't agree with this tactic; however, it is worth pointing out that Jewish factions did the same thing when Britain was occupying the region, retaliating with terrorist attacks on civilians. Desperate downtrodden people sometimes do immoral things.

          Israel uses a computer virus to prevent WMDs from being created

          Israel HAS their own WMD. Should we s

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Israel HAS their own WMD. Should we spread viruses throughout Israel too?

            Only credible source for this is Jimmy Carter, the anti-Semite DNC president who has spent most of his life smearing Israel while promoting terrorist. If you agree with Carter doesn't make it non anti-Semite, it mean YOU are an anti-Semite.

            Denouncing evil acts performed by the Israeli state is not anti-Semitism.

            Refusing to denounce attacks targeting children as acts of terrorism IS anti-Semitism. Congratulations, your up to 2 for 2.

            Back this up with evidence!

            I gave you two incidents, with links to different sources. Again you failed to mention attacking small children is wrong because they are Jews. Y

            • Only credible source for this is Jimmy Carter, the anti-Semite DNC president who has spent most of his life smearing Israel while promoting terrorist. If you agree with Carter doesn't make it non anti-Semite, it mean YOU are an anti-Semite.

              Actually, Isarali officials have admitted that they have WMD because they even admitted that use against Egypt was authorized when it looked like they were losing the war in the early stages. A strike against Egypt was authorized if they approached Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

              Refusing to denounce attacks targeting children as acts of terrorism IS anti-Semitism. Congratulations, your up to 2 for 2.

              I do denounce them. I did denounce them. I continue to denounce them. I believe you're just a racist that believes yourself superior and justified for killing Palestinians because you see them as inferior to yourself. If you're not you

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Israel gets away with it because they have the most powerful military nation in the world standing behind them.

        Erm.. no. Iran will not declare war on Israel not because of it's military might but because the Iranian government, most of whom are Arabs from southern Iraq will lose control over the Iranian people (most of whom are Persian). The thing about Iranians and Israelis is if you put them together on any other part of the world they get along like a house on fire. When the Baha'i and Zoroastrians were forced to flee by the Islamic revolution, a lot of them went to Israel. Any war between Iran and Israel will s

  • Doesn't anyone consider the idea that by deploying this weaponized code, they are giving the iranians a tool to use to retaliate ?

    ie, stick a thumb drive in a known infected computer, airplane trip to the U.S. , drop thumb drive in parking lot labeled "PORN" , etc..

    • Re:Giving the enemy a bigger sword (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Zocalo ( 252965 ) on Friday November 02, 2018 @07:09AM (#57580038) Homepage
      If it's anything like Stuxnet in terms of how it operates then the payload will be extremely specific to the environment it was targeting - e.g. require a specific control app, managing, a given make/model of PLC, connected to a given type of mechanical/electrical plant, and so on. What it might potentially do is provide victims with access to one or more zero-day vulnerabilities for those tools/products they may not have been previously aware of if they can successfully reverse engineer them, but they'd still need to repurpose those to their own ends, find suitable targets, and design their own payloads. The clock on that is also ticking, because copies of the code will get out into the security community at large, and once that happens CVE numbers will eventually get assigned and patches produced. Stuxnet might still be revealling hidden depths, but it's highly unlikely that most of the delivery mechanisms it employed would still be effective in delivering payloads anywhere except for locations that have almost no concept of security and the importance of software/firmware updates.
  • Maybe people in that region of the world should stop being childish idiots and learn how to get along with each other. I know that would require some common sense. Maybe that's what they are lacking around there?

    • Re: How Childish (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yep, they should get along with people, just like our temper-tantrum-in-chief. He gets along great with anyone who strokes his ego.

  • I think Israel would be quite happy to be assumed to responsible even if they were not. They would be the fall guy for the US, purely to engender the perception they were capable of this.

    Iran is not short of enemies these days and this would also include the Saudis. Though I would suspect their inhouse capability, I think they would be quite able to outsource this requirement.

  • Stuxnet was targetted against Germany (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ghoul ( 157158 ) on Friday November 02, 2018 @07:19AM (#57580088)

    It specifically targetted Siemens controllers the Iranians had bought. It ensured that for the future the Iranians would either buy American controllers on the black market or use non-western controllers which there was a lesser chance of the US/Israel having source code to.
    The Germans were pissed about Stuxnet as it killed their market for controllers around the world.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      More to the point, the Siemens was pissed because it showed they were clueless in terms of security and that now others would notice.

      • Re:Stuxnet was targetted against Germany (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 02, 2018 @07:48AM (#57580194)

        I wouldn't ever want to be seen as defending Siemens, but for the sake of accuracy I would say their security overall is about average for the industry. The problem is that the industry average is incredibly low.

      • To be fair most PLCs had bad security at that point. The Modbus standard is one of the most unsecure protocols. German companies were among the first to start implementing better security on their products as a direct reponse to Stuxnet.
    • Seimens are still the leading provider of PLCs in Europe. Of course they were mad that someone targeted their hardware though. They were collateral damage in the US war on stability in the middle east.

  • And now we know why Kerry was in Iran (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ghoul ( 157158 ) on Friday November 02, 2018 @07:21AM (#57580094)

    He was handing out infected USB drives.

    No real reason for him to be there given he has no official post in the US govt anymore so maybe hes supplementing his retirement with a little freelance cyberterrorism

    • Yeah he is amazing, that incompetent blow hard persona he projects is just incredible.

      He's a modern day Zorro

  • Stuxnet was a worm, not a virus. "Computer worms are similar to viruses in that they replicate functional copies of themselves and can cause the same type of damage. In contrast to viruses, which require the spreading of an infected host file, worms are standalone software and do not require a host program or human help to propagate." cisco.com.

  • Israel's Slashdot?

    Or maybe just an editor's confession?

  • Iran is not the enemy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bkmoore ( 1910118 ) on Friday November 02, 2018 @11:35AM (#57581254)

    I'm writing this from the perspective of an American, and I am no fan of Iran. Iran has a terrible religious fundamentalist regime that murders people and exports terror throughout the Middle East, to include attacking Israel. But I am sick and tired of being told by our pols that Iran is our mortal enemy, and represents a grave national security threat that needs to be attacked and destroyed. Especially when those same pols supports a different middle eastern country that has a terrible religious fundamentalist regime that murders people and exports terror throughout the Middle East and occasionally to Lower Manhattan.

    It's about nuclear weapons!!! But we support another Moslem nation that also has nuclear weapons, has live-tested them, gone to war with their neighbor multiple times, supported our enemies in Afghanistan, and is coincidentally where we found Osama Bin Laden's hiding place. So Iran can't have nuclear weapons, but the other one can? At least we know who's in charge in Iran. I'm not too sure who's really in charge in that other nuclear-armed Moslem country, it could be the military on Monday and Thursday, the civilians on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the clerics on Friday. They all take the weekend off.

    Maybe it's human rights??? But our "allies" just dismembered a journalist and have been waging a criminal bombing campaign in Yemen. No big deal, according to our President, who reminded us that Journalist was a moslem immigrant (green card holder), and then proudly exclaimed how much money our "friends" were spending on weapons, basically putting a price on the head of that journalist, anyone with a green card (including my wife), and all Yemenis. The President never struck me as especially intelligent, but he knew the price of those weapons down to the last nickel, so maybe he's a "stable genius" after all, especially when it comes to people giving him money.

    What's the difference? One chants "death to Israel" so much that it has become cliche and supports Hezbollah, lobbing mortars into Israel and occasionally funds a suicide bomber. The other one exports Wahhabism, brainwashing one person at a time, including Mohamad Atta and a few hijackers who came to America and took up flying. The cynic in me believes the difference is one country is good for business, the other is not. I hope some day people will realize Iran is not our enemy and never will be our friend. Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan are not our "friends" or our "allies", but shouldn't me made into enemies. We need to get realistic about the Middle East and above all else be consistent. Either we're for human rights or against them. But we can no longer have it both ways.

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