The Israeli evening news Hadashot reported that Iran “is again facing a [Stuxnet-like] attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before.” According to sketchy reports, the attack hit infrastructure and strategic networks.
Stuxnet was a worm believed to be the product of a U.S./Israel collaboration that targeted the Siemens equipment used in Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. It was the first big control system attack that came to light and continues to be one of the most significant known cyber attacks worldwide to date.
The report of this latest assault on Iran’s systems comes on the heels of several possibly linked news stories, but details of this next generation Stuxnet are limited.
At least one site connected news that the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying on television that Iran needed to rise to the challenge of new cyber threats with a recent story about the replacement of President Hassan Rouhani’s mobile phone after it was compromised and a Mossad-thwarted murder plot against three Iranians in Denmark.
Upshot: While the stories currently online are intriguing, we will wait for the movie version.
