WarSclerotic

Stuxnet computer worm hits Iran’s nuke plant: Voice of Russia.

‘Powers influenced Russia on S-300 deal’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Iranian Defense Minister blames Russia for giving into West’s pressure by negating on Tehran-Moscow missile defense systems deal; says Russia’s claim that deal violated UN Security Council sanctions false, since it was signed in 2007

News agencies

Welcome to the world of cyberwar – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Digital attacks aren’t science fiction, they’re here now.

By Guy Grimland

A few months after the aerial attack on the Syrian nuclear facility, which the foreign press attributed to Israel, the New York Times reported a twist to the story. It seems that prior to the attack, the Syrian radar and anti-missile batteries were paralyzed by a computer virus, reported the Times and a few other papers. That enabled the bombers to enter Syrian air space and attack the nuclear plant unimpeded.

That may have been the first incident to show the general public just what digital warfare really is in the modern age, not to mention Israel’s ostensible talent at it.

	Illustration
	Photo by: Ayala Tal

The Stuxnet worm attack on the Iranian nuclear systems – and tens of thousands of other computer systems around the world – also has been widely attributed to Israel, though the truth isn’t known. One thing experts agree on is that Stuxnet wasn’t the brainchild of some kid in his parents’ basement. It had to have been created by a big organization, maybe even a country.

Some think the worm was hyped, though it unquestionably was a clever one, targeting industrial systems quite exclusively. Shai Blitzblau, CEO of Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research, says Stuxnet has proven relatively trivial to frustrate. If it had been hostile computer code written by a state-of-the-art intelligence organization, it would have been developed to evolve and evade anti-virus systems, he surmises.

The nature of worms

What is a computer worm, anyway? It is malicious software code (“malware” ) used to take advantage of loopholes in system defenses to extract information or cause damage.

A worm can be disseminated as simply as by e-mail: click on a link or file in an e-mail and the worm loads itself onto your computer without you knowing a thing about it. Once inside, it might do any number of things. It might upload Trojan horses that extract information from your computer. It might seize control of your computer. The worm usually also causes your system to try to infect other computers.

Avi Weissman, academic adviser to the Technion University’s information security department and chairman of the Israeli Forum for Information Security, thinks Stuxnet was probably disseminated not by low-tech e-mails, but by flash drives. That indicates its creator knew the target wasn’t connected to the Internet, he suggests. It also means that a human agent was needed to infect the Iranian computers, possibly even a person who didn’t know he was carrying the virus, such as a technician from Siemens, which built the system.

	Shai Blitzblau: ’If Stuxnet had been hostile computer code written by a state-of-the-art intelligence organization, it would have been developed to evolve.’
	Photo by: Haaretz

Israel in the cross-hairs

Israel may or may not use digital attacks for its own ends. It’s also in the cross-hairs of very real enemies, say experts.

Nir David, an expert on information security, says enemies have been waging cyberwar on Israel for years. “During the Second Lebanon War, it turned out that Hezbollah had much more advanced cyber abilities than had been thought,” he says. Systems and training were provided by Iran. The Winograd Report on Israel’s failures during the war cited information leaks from the army, including at the tactical level.

During and after the war, Israel took pride that Hezbollah hadn’t managed to break into the encrypted communications network Vered Harim, says Weissman. But the fact that Hezbollah even tried to break into the network attests to its sheer ability, its ambitions and the tack that Israel’s enemies are taking, he warns. Israel might have assumed they are technologically inferior, but they know where to invest effort, he says.

Nir David mentions another case of digital attack against Israel – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s boast that in 1997, the militant group intercepted drone transmissions, and then mounted its attack against Israel’s Navy Seals. “I don’t know if it’s true,” David says, but it could be, based on Hezbollah’s abilities and the poor quality of information security at the time. Back then awareness was low, he adds.

The Israeli Defense Forces encountered digital attacks during Operation Cast Lead as well, David says. According to Aviation Week, the enemy tapped into the Amos communications satellite and tried to upload propaganda. The satellite’s security systems foiled the attempt but the fact is, it happened and almost succeeded. The enemy is honing its digital skills, he concludes.

	Rafi Ivgi: ’Israelis can sleep well at night even though our security systems are computerized and theoretically.’
	Photo by: Haaretz

Rafi Ivgi, security consultant, says Israelis can sleep well at night even though our security systems are computerized and theoretically susceptible to attack. Israeli intelligence is an effective protective tool, he says.

MESS Report / Lebanon terrified of slide into civil war – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Fearing slide toward civil war, Lebanese citizens arm themselves.

By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

The latest reports from Lebanon describe a frightened country; the Lebanese are terrified about the prospect of a slide toward civil war. Several reports speculate that Beirut residents are arming themselves in expectation of a flare-up of violence between the two main antagonists in Lebanon today: Hezbollah and its allies on the one hand, and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his supporters on the other.

The investigation of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, the father of the current premier, could turn out to be the spark that sets off the tinderbox.

	Lebanese soldiers patrol the streets of Beirut, Lebanon on August 24, 2010.
	Photo by: AP

A Lebanon-based website has in recent days posted an interview with an arms dealer who lives in Beirut and reports that there has been a rise in the sale of light firearms. He says the sales have spiked as a result of a clash in a Beirut neighborhood, Burj Abu Haidar, between an extremist pro-Syria Sunni group and Hezbollah militants; four people were killed in the skirmish (one was a Hezbollah commander, who died at the start of the fighting ).

In the meantime, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon this week has opponents of Hezbollah worried. The visit, perceived as a blunt statement about Iran’s influence over Lebanon, has stirred concerns over how incendiary Ahmadinejad might be when he visits the southern part of the country and tours sites near Israel’s border.

According to Beirut residents, the Hariri assassination casts a long, ominous shadow over daily life in Lebanon’s capital, and has come in recent weeks to dominate public discussions. The release of the next report on the Hariri assassination, prepared by a special international prosecutor, has been deferred, by probably by another two months at least.

Lebanon is rife with speculation that the report will lead to indictments against several top Hezbollah figures; many believe that the prosecutor has postponed the document’s release as a way of getting more time to build an irrefutable case against these figures. As tensions in the country rise, well-placed Lebanese sources describe the country’s mood as “gloomy.” Though its scope is difficult to determine, the sources point to a trend that the country has already seen in its war-torn past: Lebanese residents are reportedly leaving the country.

Should the international criminal tribunal hearing the Hariri case cite the names of those implicated in the assassination, it is doubtful that the Lebanese government will arrest them. However, under international law, the UN court is authorized to try defendants in absentia, and in that case, court proceedings against the accused would be broadcast daily on Lebanese television, at least those that aren’t controlled by Syria or Hezbollah.

Such trials are likely to exert a tremendous influence over public opinion. Worried about the disclosure of its apparent involvement in the killing, Hezbollah will take steps to undermine any such trial process. At this stage, Hezbollah insists that the special prosecutor is relying on false testimony, and it is also trying to put an end to Lebanon’s funding of the court investigation (it is underwriting 49 percent of the costs ). Ten government ministers back Hezbollah’s efforts to cut off the money supply; all it needs to bring an end to the funding is the support of one more minister.

Presumably, the possibility of a widely covered prosecution of accused Hezbollah operatives has the organization’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, nervous. This weekend Nasrallah presided over a ceremony marking the end of a project to plant 1 million trees across the country; Nasrallah’s participation was seen as an effort to reinforce his credibility as a “Lebanese” patriot.

Since assuming control of Hezbollah in 1992, Nasrallah has pressured the organization to be less isolationist and more Lebanese. He realizes that if Hezbollah operatives are convicted for involvement in the Hariri killing, that would damage the efforts to brand Hezbollah as a patriotic Lebanese movement. Should the damage seem irreparable, Nasrallah’s strategy of attaining power in the country by means of the ballot box would be rendered futile.

Syria has been working with Hezbollah to oppose the international investigation of the Hariri assassination. Last week, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem harshly denounced the special investigation, a position that generated tension when Mualem later met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Overall, it appears that Syria has increased its influence in Lebanon over the past six months; the Syrians have been filling in gaps that were left after they were forced to withdraw their troops from Lebanon five years ago, due to pressure that mounted after Hariri’s death.

Given that backdrop, experts have been closely monitoring the relationship between Damascus and Tehran; the Syrians are clearly worried about an Iranian attempt to strengthen Tehran’s grip over Lebanese affairs. The prime minister’s office in Beirut is not the only place where Ahmadinejad’s visit is generating tension. The Syrians will also be worriedly watching the Iranian leader’s visit, knowing that their dreams of a Greater Syria could be slipping though their fingers once again, this time thanks to the Iranians.