WarSclerotic

Unconventioanl Warfare on Iran – Op-Eds – Israel National News.

No hacker could have been able to launch the cyber attack on Iran, says the writer, who thinks he knows who did. The article below has also been published in Dutch by the Volkskrant.

The Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ published a Missing Peace article titled ‘Iran makes Mideast peace impossible’. In the article we wrote the following about the Stuxnet worm, that is causing havoc in computer systems all over Iran:

“The long awaited attack on Iran by Israel could take place in a total different shape than commonly expected. Just this week news broke that the Iranian Nuclear Agency tries to limit damage caused by a computer virus named Stuxnet. The virus has paralyzed a large part of the Iranian industrial complex en could be the result of a combined action by the CIA and the Mossad”.

The idea that the Stuxnet worm could be the long overdue attack on Iran’s nuclear program seemed to be speculation at the time. But now however, it is clear that Iran has indeed been targeted by an unprecedented cyber  attack and Israel may be  behind it.

New Findings

Last week leading international media and experts published new findings about the Stuxnet worm.

The New York Times was one such example. The paper published an article that revealed new information about the design of Stuxnet.

The virus has been specially designed to sabotage frequency controllers which determine the speed of the P-1 centrifuges used at Natanz.

Stuxnet causes rapid changes in driving speeds of the rotors in these centrifuges. This ultimately causes cracks and destroys the rotor causing the centrifuge flying apart.

According to former IAEA inspector David Albright the worm has the potential to destroy entire centrifuge plants like Natanz.

The German industrial computer expert Langner also published findings about his research into Stuxnet. He explained that the virus contains two different digital warheads. One of them is aimed at the frequency controllers in the P-1 centrifuge.

The other one causes disruptions in the Siemens turbine controller at the Busher nuclear power plant. This is the Siemens S7-417 controller. Siemens has been involved with the Iranian nuclear program since the reign of the Shah.

The disruptions in the turbine controller could eventually lead to the melt down of the reactor. This way Stuxnet could even be more effective than an airstrike on Busher.

Langner compared the malware to the introduction of an F-35 stealth fighter on the battlefield of World War 1.

It is clear that the cyber attack must have been the result of years of research and preparation, he said.

It is also obvious no hacker would have been able to launch such a cyber attack.

Cyber war

Earlier,  ‘The Australian’ published an article about the cyber war between Israel and Iran. In the article, unnamed European security experts declared that Stuxnet must have been designed by a well funded military laboratory.

Since the discovery of the virus, speculation about the origin of the attack has pointed in the direction of Israel.

Israel has proportionally one of the largest cyber war units in the world. The IDF unit in charge with cyber warfare is code named Unit 8200 and has thousands of soldiers.

At the first cyber warfare conference in Israel in February this year, military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin declared Israel the world leader in the field of cyber war.

He also said – perhaps a hint to the planned Stuxnet attack- that this type of war gives small countries the military power which was until recently only reserved for superpowers

Source of Stuxnet

Speculation about the source of the Stuxnet virus will not disappear anytime soon and the question who was responsible for the design of the virus and the attack will probably remain an open question.

The direct results of the attack however, have recently become visible.

On November 23 IAEA officials announced that none of the P-1 centrifuges on Natanz were working during a check by IAEA inspectors earlier that month.

The Israeli TV news show Mabat revealed the same evening that the enrichment activity at Natanz has not returned to the same level ever since.

Earlier the IAEA announced that the number of operating centrifuges at Natanz has fallen from 4920 in May 2009 to 3722 in September 2010.

Iran however, denies that Stuxnet has caused any damage at Natanz. But in September Iranian officials admitted that the virus has caused extensive damage to computer systems in Iran.

Among them the systems of the Iranian nuclear complex.

Israeli design?

Stuxnet contains in its code a couple of hints that could be a fingerprint pointing to Israeli design.

Buried in Stuxnet’s code is a marker with the digits “19790509”.

Symantec researchers discovered that on May 9 1979 an Iranian Jew by the name of Habib Elghanian was executed by a firing squad in Tehran. The execution sent shock waves through the closely knit Iranian Jewish community.

Anoher hint that this could be the work of the Israelis is that the malware creates a directory called myrtle. In Hebrew myrtle is called “hadas” The name Hadassah (Esther), is very similar to the Hebrew word for myrtle and the Targums say: “They call her Hadassah, because she was just, and those that are just are compared to myrtles”.  Esther was the Jewish Queen who in Biblical times prevented genocide of the Jewish people in Persia (Iran).

The revelations of the past few weeks however, give a better indication about the possible Israeli origin of the Stuxnet worm.

It is clear by now that the cyber attack was directed at Iran’s nuclear program. Israel has always been very clear that it will not allow a nuclear Iran. At the same time the predicted military attack on Iran did not take place even when it was clear that Iran was able to pass the nuclear threshold. But by now it seems entirely possible that Israel decided to choose to launch an unprecedented and unconvential attack on Iran: a cyber attack.

Unconvential attack

The development of Stuxnet may have been costly since it is the most sophisticated malware ever designed.

However, the price that Israel would have to pay for a conventional attack on Iran would cost the country much more in terms of loss in human life and resources.

It is almost certain that such an attack would cost Israel dearly and would trigger a much wider conflict.

So this cyberspace attack could fit into the rapidly changing military doctrines in the IDF and elsewhere.

The IDF is a world leader in high-tech military inventions, such as drones which are introduced on battle fields worldwide.

Stuxnet however, is unique by any standard because no conventionally known military means were used in the attack on Iran.

That makes it probably the first time in military history that a military attack of this proportion did not cause the loss of human life.

And that would be no small accomplishment for a state so often accused of the disproportionateuse of  force.

Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized

This entry was posted on December 3, 2010 at 1:20 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.