Stuxnet - US/Israeli Cyber Attack Against Iran

[Disco_Destroyer]

This came by way of AVG Facebook page
Could be propaganda to get us ready though

[Disco_Destroyer]

[Disco_Destroyer]

Why was this moved :0
anyway this adds weight to the propaganda analogy as it seems to have done the same to Facebook

[TonyGosling]

Rightly maybe should just go with the UN thread?
Seems timed to coincide with Ahmedinejad's UN speech.

[Disco_Destroyer]

[Disco_Destroyer]

http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/144245.html

Iran's nuclear chief cautions the head of UN nuclear agency that he should not allow himself to be used as a political instrument for starting a war against Tehran.


Yukiya Amano's biased approach has raised the question in Tehran about whether he is "interested in providing a pretext for an attack against us," Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said.

"Is Amano interested in associating his own name with war? Does he want to see the world beset by catastrophe?" Salehi queried in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel which was published on Monday.

"It is merely a friendly, but serious, warning that one should not allow oneself to be politically instrumentalized."

Salehi said Amano had failed to ascend to the post of IAEA chairman a number of times, because "many countries were concerned that he would yield to external pressure."

"Mr. Amano must be careful not to lose his legitimacy due to his partisanship for certain policies."

Salehi stressed that while Iran is "trying to accommodate the IAEA beyond what is required by our written obligations," Amano's apparent bias had caused opposition to a "flexible cooperation" with the agency to increase in Tehran.

"We will not accept the new tone," Salehi concluded.

Amano claimed in his February 18 report on Iran, which was released amid a US campaign to win international support for adopting sanctions against Tehran, that the IAEA had "concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities" that could enable the Iranian military to develop a nuclear bomb.

His report came while the agency had in its previous reports confirmed the non-diversion of Iran's nuclear program.

Earlier in September, Amano released his latest report in which although the "non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran" was once again confirmed, Tehran was urged to "cooperate in clarifying outstanding issues,” and also to “act strictly in accordance with the provisions of, and to ratify promptly, the Additional Protocol.”

He also claimed Iran's decision to bar the agency's two inspectors would "hamper the inspection process."

Iran barred two IAEA inspectors from entering the country in June on grounds that they had leaked information to the media before the official issuance of the agency's report on Iran's nuclear program.

MYA/HGH/MMN

[TonyGosling]

Israeli cyber attacks target Press TV
Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:36PM
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/171502.html
Over the past 10 days, Press TV news website has been hit by Distributed Denial-of-Service Attack (DDOS) from Israeli sources.
The attacks, however, have failed to bring the site down, reportedly due to formidable security systems integrated into the website.
DDOS attack is an attempt to keep an internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, thus making it unavailable to its intended users.
Another popular Iran-based Arabic-language news website Al-Alam has also been the target of numerous cyber attacks from sources in Israel and a few US-backed Arab countries.
Press TV and Al-Alam news websites are among the most active and prominent independent sources for coverage of developments on the recent uprisings in Middle Eastern and North African countries.
The Iran-based websites also provide extensive coverage of events in occupied Palestinian territories.
Documents released in 2010 by Wikileaks whistleblower website revealed that Britain had concentrated its efforts on halting Press TV Ltd from producing programs critical of Western Imperialism.
In an article entitled The Secretive Campaign to Halt Press TV in the UK, British journalist and broadcaster Lauren Booth outlined UK's efforts to support the US in shutting down the company that markets documentaries and series to the Iranian channel with an identical name.
Having failed to find any legitimate problem with the quality or content of the programs produced by Press TV, the UK's National Westminster (NatWest) Bank froze Press TV Ltd's business account without any prior notice last month and stated that the accounts would be permanently closed in February 2011.
Press TV has also been put off the air in several Western-backed regional states for covering the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North of Africa.
Earlier in March, Bahrain interrupted the broadcast of Iran's Arabic-language entertainment channel iFilm, following its violent crackdown on anti-government protests in the country.
Press TV has gained popularity for its fair and in-depth coverage of the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in Bahrain.
Freelance journalist Johnny Miller, who covered the uprising in Bahrain for Press TV, was detained, harassed and eventually deported from the country earlier this month for no specific reason. His equipment was also confiscated by the Bahraini authorities.

http://bcfm.org.uk/wp-content/Podcasts/20110909180001.mp3

[TonyGosling]

US governor Tim Pawlenty priases the "good work" carried out by the US and Israel in assasinating Iranian nuclear sceintists and unleashing the Stuxnet worm

http://thetimesofpakistan.com/2011/10/13/us-playing-the-saudi-envoy-ga me/

[Disco_Destroyer]

Stuxnet x20: Massive cyber spy virus 'Flame' hits Iran, Israel
http://www.rt.com/news/flame-iran-virus-kaspersky-442/
Published: 29 May, 2012, 04:28
Edited: 29 May, 2012, 13:35
Video
Reuters/Stephanie McGehee

(15.0Mb)embed video
TAGS: Conflict, Scandal, SciTech, Middle East, Politics, Internet, Iran, Tom Barton, Social networks, Security
A powerful data-snatching virus targeting computers in Iran, Israel and other Middle Eastern countries has been discovered by Russian experts. The worm has been used for years for what seems to be state-sponsored cyber espionage.
Russian cyber-security company Kaspersky Lab says the malware, codenamed Flame, is the largest and one of the most complex cyber-attacks ever discovered. It reports that the most severely affected computers are in Iran – but Israel, Syria and other countries across the Middle East have also been infected.
Kaspersky's first recorded instance of Flame dates back to August 2010, although the firm admits the worm could have been stealing data for years before that. The virus may also have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet virus that affected the Iranian nuclear program in 2010.
The Moscow-based company said on Monday that its researchers had yet to determine whether Flame had a specific mission, like Stuxnet or Duqu – another massive cyber-attack that had sought to infiltrate networks and steal data.
Flame’s code appears to be twenty times the size of Stuxnet’s. The malware is able to gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on PC microphones or webcams in order to record conversations and video, take screen shots – and eventually send the data back to the attackers.
"Once a system is infected, Flame begins a complex set of operations, including sniffing the network traffic, taking screenshots, recording audio conversations, intercepting the keyboard, and so on," Kaspersky's chief malware expert Vitaly Kamlyuk told BBC.
The complexity of the virus and the targets that have been hit led Kaspersky Lab to believe that this a government is behind the cyber attacks. At the same time, the experts are not sure of its exact origins and have yet to determine whether Flame had a specific mission, like Stuxnet, whose attack Iran blamed on the United States and Israel.
US: 'No comment’
Many experts believe Iran’s suspicions toward the US and Israel are not without merit. In January 2011, The New York Times came out with a report stating that both attacks originated from a joint program in 2004 aimed at undermining Iran's alleged efforts to build a nuclear bomb. The article said the program was authorized by US President George W. Bush, and later accelerated by his successor, Barack Obama.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defense, David Oten, declined to comment on Flame on Monday, Reuters reports. The CIA, State Department, National Security Agency, and US Cyber Command declined to comment as well.
Kaspersky Lab said it discovered Flame after a UN telecommunications body asked it to analyze data on malicious software across the Middle East in search of the data-wiping virus reported by Iran.

[TonyGosling]

Israel hints it may be behind 'Flame' super-virus targeting Iran
'Flame' cyber attacks that can steal vast amounts of sensitive data come as Tehran nuclear talks falter
Donald Macintyre , Jerome Taylor Wednesday 30 May 2012
A top Israeli minister yesterday fed speculation that the Jewish state could be responsible for a powerful new virus said to have been used in a fresh attack on computers in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The discovery of the unprecedented complex data-stealing "Flame" virus was disclosed by a Russian-based digital security firm Kaspersky Lab. Its experts reported on Monday that it had been applied most actively in Iran, but also in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Moshe Yaalon, Israel's Vice Prime Minister and Strategic Affairs Minister, told the country's Army Radio: "Anyone who sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat – it's reasonable [to assume] that he will take various steps, including these, to harm it."
Mr Yaalon, a former military Chief of Staff, added: "Israel was blessed as being a country rich with high-tech. These tools that we take pride in open up all kinds of opportunities for us."
He stopped short of directly claiming responsibility, but Israel has long been in the forefront of opposition to Iran's nuclear programme, currently the subject of difficult negotiations between Tehran and six world powers.
Although many viruses can already steal large amounts of data, few have been as comprehensive as Flame, or steal in so many different ways. The security industry is still in the early stages of examining what exactly Flame can do, but examples already given include hijacking a computer's microphone to record conversations, taking screen shots during chats through instant messenger and even stealing data from devices that are attached to an infected computer through a Bluetooth connection.
The Flame virus is believed to the third and, at least in information gathering, most effective cyber attack on Iranian computer systems in recent years. Tehran admitted the best known of these, Stuxnet, had damaged centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz in 2010.
The internet security industry has been both shocked and impressed by Flame's complexity and how dedicated it is to stealing as much intelligence data from a computer network as possible. Rik Ferguson, director of security research at Trend Micro, told The Independent: "It's a very comprehensive and bespoke piece of malware. It's further evidence that certain states or organisations are using malware to deliver very effective targeted attacks that can only be developed with significant planning and resources."
There are disagreements over how long it has been in existence. Kaspersky say the attacks began around 2010, but analysts at Budapest University's renowned Cryptography and System Security, which has also been analysing the virus since March, say evidence suggests Flame may have been infiltrating computer systems for five years.
Iran has largely played down its vulnerability to cyber attack, which it regards as part of a continued campaign by Israel and the US against its nuclear programme. It also blames those states for targeted assassinations of nuclear scientists. Officials at Iran's communications and technology ministry said yesterday they had produced an antivirus capable of identifying and removing the new malware, although many security analysts question such claims.
Mr Yaalon also yesterday voiced Israeli government scepticism about the ongoing negotiations with Tehran, saying last week's inconclusive talks in Baghdad "yielded no significant achievement" except to let Iran buy time. Talks will resume in Moscow next month.
The talks have so far faltered on Iran's resistance to demands for an end to higher grade 20 per cent uranium enrichment unless the West first eases sanctions which are due to be tightened significantly at the end of June.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-hints-it-ma y-be-behind-flame-supervirus-targeting-iran-7800935.html

[Disco_Destroyer]

[TonyGosling]

Retired US general 'may have leaked Stuxnet cyberattack details'
A senior US general is believed to be under investigation for allegedly leaking details of a secret cyberattack on Iran.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10147737/Re tired-US-general-may-have-leaked-Stuxnet-cyberattack-details.html
By Jon Swaine, New York - 2:18PM BST 28 Jun 2013

James Cartwright, who was the US military's second-highest-ranking officer before retiring in 2011, is said to be the target of an inquiry by the US justice department into how the media obtained information on the Stuxnet strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The computer virus, which is believed to have been unleashed by US and Israeli engineers in 2010, temporarily disabled 1,000 centrifuges within Iran’s nuclear programme.

The New York Times last year published a detailed account, sourced to anonymous officials, of how the virus was developed.

It was reported to have been part of a wider cyber-attack codenamed Olympic Games, which began under former president George W Bush and was extended under President Barack Obama.

Gen. Cartwright, 63, was credited in the front-page article with overseeing the operation. He has now received a letter from justice department officials informing him that he is the subject of the leak inquiry, according to NBC News.

The 63-year-old is the highest-profile official so far to be targeted by an aggressive crackdown on leakers by Mr Obama’s administration, which has prosecuted more people under the espionage act than all past administrations combined.

Inquiries into two other leaks have seen phone records seized for reporters from the Associated Press and emails obtained from a journalist for Fox News, prompting fierce criticism of the administration from American media organisations.

The disclosures in The New York Times’s article were excerpted from a book by David Sanger, one of its correspondents, titled Confront and Conceal.

The book also contained several other inside accounts of the administration’s national security operations.

Sanger wrote that his reports were “based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the programme”, adding: “None would allow their names to be used because the effort remains highly classified”.

Its leak prompted furious accusations from Republicans that Mr Obama’s aides had deliberately released information to the media in order to bolster his credentials as commander-in-chief and improve his chances of securing re-election in last November’s presidential poll.

Gen Cartwright, a 40-year veteran of the Marines, served as deputy chairman of the joint chiefs of staff between 2007 and 2011.

He was at one stage one of Mr Obama’s most trusted advisers and was once viewed as the likely front-runner for promotion to chairman of the joint chiefs of staff - America’s most senior officer.

However he is said to have fallen foul of colleagues by discreetly siding with Joe Biden, the Vice-President, during Mr Obama’s 2010 review of the war in Afghanistan. While other top generals, such as David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the conflict, wanted a boost in US troop numbers, Mr Biden urged the president to hasten America’s withdrawal.

The chairmanship eventually went to Gen Martin Dempsey, the former chief of staff of the Army. Gen Cartwright now serves as a chair in defence policy studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.

If indicted and convicted under the espionage act, Gen Cartwright could face a lengthy prison sentence. Gen Cartwright could not be reached for comment. His attorney told NBC News: “I have no comment”.

http://www.bcfmradio.com/wp-content/Podcasts/20130920170001.mp3
http://www.bcfmradio.com/wp-content/Podcasts/20130920180001.mp3

[TonyGosling]

GCHQ intel used to develop Stuxnet, claims new documentary
US peppered Iran with thousands of cyberwar weapons
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/17/stuxnet_nitero_zeus_program/

17 Feb 2016 at 08:21, Darren Pauli

The super worm known as Stuxnet was but a cog in an active US war program in which hundreds of thousands of network implants and backdoors in Iran networks were actively maintained to facilitate a devastating barrage of hacking attacks, a documentary claims.

Zero Days, due to screen at the Berlin Film Festival today, claims that Stuxnet was just one part of an operation called "Olympic Games" that is itself part of a wider effort dubbed "Nitro Zeus" that involves hundreds of US defence personnel.

Nitro Zeus may also involve Israel, the film alleges.

Reports from those who've seen or been briefed on the film suggest it alleges that Stuxnet's authors attempted to keep the program covert by restricting the malware to infect only Iranian machines.

Forte Mead hackers worked furiously to mop-up infected computers after a leak became apparent.

Israeli counterparts reportedly screwed the pooch when they later unleashed a more aggressive and noisier version of Stuxnet that infected thousands of computers across more than 115 countries.

The worm was soon discovered in 2010 and promptly analysed - and gaped at askance - by the security industry and media.

The film asserts that Stuxnet contained four zero day vulnerabilities and was precision-designed for the Natanz facility using intelligence supplied by Britain's GCHQ.

It is not stated in the documentary whether the GCHQ had knowledge of Nitro Zeus, a fact that could breach national laws regarding use of intelligence material in that country.

US State Department and National Security Agency officials expressed concern over the likelihood that Nitro Zeus would devastate civilian infrastructure.

One unnamed source said Nitro Zeus planners had "no f**king clue" regarding the potential impacts of the attacks.

Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden says while he had no knowledge of Nitro Zeus the program has prematurely legitimised state-backed network centric warfare before rules of engagement could be agreed.

[Disco_Destroyer]

So now wikileaks PBGary e-mail leaks confirm what we knew

https://sputniknews.com/us/201611291047972107-us-journalist-barrett-br own-released-from-federal-prison/