Darth Vader
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John Leyden | The Register
The Iranian government has warned of yet another cyberattack against its nuclear facilities.
Iranian state television reports that the discovery of the assault followed the breakdown on Tuesday of international talks related to Iran's controversial nuclear programme, which Western governments allege is aimed at manufacturing nuclear weapons.
Iran's Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi was quick to point the finger of blame towards the US, the UK and Israel over the attack.
"Based on obtained information, America and the Zionist regime (Israel) along with the MI6 planned an operation to launch a massive cyber attack against Iran's facilities following the meeting between Iran and the P5+1 in Moscow," Moslehi fumed to Iranian government mouthpiece Press TV (via Reuters).
"They still seek to carry out the plan, but we have taken necessary measures," he added, without going into details about the assault.
The accusation follows the discovery last month of Flame, a cyber-espionage utility, that infected computers in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. The latest theories suggest Flame carried out reconnaissance work on closed networks associated with Iran's nuclear program which were later targeted by the infamous Stuxnet worm, which was discovered in June 2010.
Stuxnet was aimed at sabotaging high-speed centrifuges at the main Iranian enrichment facility after infecting systems on associated industrial control networks. An early version of Stuxnet features USB drive infection routines that match those from a Flame module and take advantage of the same Microsoft vulnerability, which was unlatched at the time of the original attacks.
It's unclear if the cyber attack denounced by Moslehi was related to a variant of Flame or some new strain of malware.
Unnamed US officials have confirmed over recent weeks that both Stuxnet and Flame were developed as apart of a joint US/Israeli operation aimed at sabotaging or otherwise delaying Iran's nuclear programme without resorting to air strikes against nuclear facilities. Both strains of malware were developed under Operation Olympic Games, an op that kicked off around 2006 under the Bush administration and was later continued under Barack Obama.
The Iranian government has warned of yet another cyberattack against its nuclear facilities.
Iranian state television reports that the discovery of the assault followed the breakdown on Tuesday of international talks related to Iran's controversial nuclear programme, which Western governments allege is aimed at manufacturing nuclear weapons.
Iran's Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi was quick to point the finger of blame towards the US, the UK and Israel over the attack.
"Based on obtained information, America and the Zionist regime (Israel) along with the MI6 planned an operation to launch a massive cyber attack against Iran's facilities following the meeting between Iran and the P5+1 in Moscow," Moslehi fumed to Iranian government mouthpiece Press TV (via Reuters).
"They still seek to carry out the plan, but we have taken necessary measures," he added, without going into details about the assault.
The accusation follows the discovery last month of Flame, a cyber-espionage utility, that infected computers in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. The latest theories suggest Flame carried out reconnaissance work on closed networks associated with Iran's nuclear program which were later targeted by the infamous Stuxnet worm, which was discovered in June 2010.
Stuxnet was aimed at sabotaging high-speed centrifuges at the main Iranian enrichment facility after infecting systems on associated industrial control networks. An early version of Stuxnet features USB drive infection routines that match those from a Flame module and take advantage of the same Microsoft vulnerability, which was unlatched at the time of the original attacks.
It's unclear if the cyber attack denounced by Moslehi was related to a variant of Flame or some new strain of malware.
Unnamed US officials have confirmed over recent weeks that both Stuxnet and Flame were developed as apart of a joint US/Israeli operation aimed at sabotaging or otherwise delaying Iran's nuclear programme without resorting to air strikes against nuclear facilities. Both strains of malware were developed under Operation Olympic Games, an op that kicked off around 2006 under the Bush administration and was later continued under Barack Obama.
