The cyber-attack against Iran’s nuclear
program, discovered in 2012 and known as Stuxnet, was originated from U.S.,
current and former U.S. officials confirmed on Friday after a New York Times
report.
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| Stuxnet-led cyberwar against Iran's nuclear program started by U.S. and Israel |
The cyber-attack destroyed nearly 1,000 of Iran's 6,000 centrifuges, fast-spinning
machines that enrich uranium. The National Security Agency (NSA) developed the Stuxnet
virus with the assistance of Israeli experts.
According to details; a secret cyber-war, instead of launching a traditional
military attack, against Iran's nuclear program was started with the
collaboration of U.S. and Israeli experts after the orders of U.S. President Barack
Obama and the step was taken to slow down Iran's evident progress toward
building nuclear weapons without launching a traditional military attack, U.S.
officials revealed on the condition of anonymity.
The Stuxnet virus was developed initially during the George W. Bush
administration, under the code name as Olympic
Games, and was aimed toward damaging Iran's nuclear potential slowly
while generating perplexity among Iranian scientists about the cause of disasters
at a nuclear plant.
The use of the cyber-weapon, malware designed to penetrate and harm computer
systems, was supposed to force the Iranians assume that their nuclear
scientists were incompetent of running uranium enrichment facility, the
officials said further.
"The idea was to string it out as long as possible," one
participant said. "If you had wholesale destruction right away, then they
generally can figure out what happened, and it doesn't look like
incompetence."
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Report Tags: Stuxnet, Iran’s Nuclear Program, National Security Agency, Barack Obama, Cyberwar against Iran, Cyber-attack on Iran,
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