"Superior genius" Iran devastated and desperate over Stuxnet attack

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

http://www.debka.com/article/9050/

An alarmed Iran asks for outside help to stop rampaging Stuxnet malworm
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 29, 2010, 10:07 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tehran this week secretly appealed to a number of computer security experts in West and East Europe with offers of handsome fees for consultations on ways to exorcize the Stuxnet worm spreading havoc through the computer networks and administrative software of its most important industrial complexes and military command centers. debkafile's intelligence and Iranian sources report Iran turned for outside help after local computer experts failed to remove the destructive virus.
None of the foreign experts has so far come forward because Tehran refuses to provide precise information on the sensitive centers and systems under attack and give the visiting specialists the locations where they would need to work. They were not told whether they would be called on to work outside Tehran or given access to affected sites to study how they function and how the malworm managed to disable them. Iran also refuses to give out data on the changes its engineers have made to imported SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems, mostly from Germany.
The impression debkafile sources gained Wednesday, Sept. 29 from talking to European computer experts approached for aid was that the Iranians are getting desperate. Not only have their own attempts to defeat the invading worm failed, but they made matters worse: The malworm became more aggressive and returned to the attack on parts of the systems damaged in the initial attack.

One expert said: "The Iranians have been forced to realize that they would be better off not 'irritating' the invader because it hits back with a bigger punch."

Looking beyond Iran's predicament, he wondered whether the people responsible for planting Stuxnet in Iran - and apparently continuing to offload information from its sensitive systems - have the technology for stopping its rampage. "My impression," he said, "is that somebody outside Iran has partial control at least on its spread. Can this body stop malworm in its tracks or kill it? We don't have that information at present, he said.

As it is, the Iranian officials who turned outside for help were described by another of the experts they approached as alarmed and frustrated. It has dawned on them that the trouble cannot be waved away overnight but is around for the long haul. Finding a credible specialist with the magic code for ridding them of the cyber enemy could take several months. After their own attempts to defeat Stuxnet backfired, all the Iranians can do now is to sit back and hope for the best, helpless to predict the worm's next target and which other of their strategic industries will go down or be robbed of its secrets next.

While Tehran has given out several conflicting figures on the systems and networks struck by the malworm - 30,000 to 45,000 industrial units - debkafile's sources cite security experts as putting the figure much higher, in the region of millions. If this is true, then this cyber weapon attack on Iran would be the greatest ever.


Boo-yah!

[muman613]

As a Software Engineer and System Administrator I would simple install on a completely new platform a pristine copy of the operating system, and then re-install all the industrial process software from scratch, then power down all the affected systems and then bring up the new systems in their place. This would effectively rid the system of the malware... They would also have to re-format all their hard-drives after attempting to back up any critical data.

It doesn't sound too difficult to do that... But maybe they are reading our forum?

[Zelhar]

Iranian mullahs are worm magnets.

[IsraelForever]

I said a while back, after I was complaining about Israel not attacking Iran's nuclear sites, that, of course, the Israeli's had to be smarter than me.  I just couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how Israel would allow Iran to develop nuclear bombs.  And now this.  I'm so happy about this and getting such a thrill reading about it.  This is the best news I've heard in a long, long time.  GO ISRAEL!

NEVER AGAIN!

[Yaakov Mendel]

What disgusts me is to think of the European engineers who would come to the rescue of Iran just for the cash, if Iran didn't ban them access to the systems and locations they need.

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

As a Software Engineer and System Administrator I would simple install on a completely new platform a pristine copy of the operating system, and then re-install all the industrial process software from scratch, then power down all the affected systems and then bring up the new systems in their place. This would effectively rid the system of the malware... They would also have to re-format all their hard-drives after attempting to back up any critical data.

It doesn't sound too difficult to do that... But maybe they are reading our forum?

Being that it has infected at minimum tens of thousands [perhaps even hundreds] of computers, do you think Stuxnet could reinfect any computer treated like you say?

[syyuge]

 
 

[MasterWolf1]

I have a question, didn't they say there was something like this worm virus attacking into some of the American defense computer system?  I am all for anything to destroy Iran's attempt in anything especially with nuclear gatherings.  But if it is the same that has attacked into the U.S. then this is something to worry about cause if Muslims do decide to launch anything and our national defense computers are screwy well isn't that dangerous for us?

[HiWarp]

As a Software Engineer and System Administrator I would simple install on a completely new platform a pristine copy of the operating system, and then re-install all the industrial process software from scratch, then power down all the affected systems and then bring up the new systems in their place. This would effectively rid the system of the malware... They would also have to re-format all their hard-drives after attempting to back up any critical data.

It doesn't sound too difficult to do that... But maybe they are reading our forum?

Being that it has infected at minimum tens of thousands [perhaps even hundreds] of computers, do you think Stuxnet could reinfect any computer treated like you say?

Depending on the scope of infected computers and given the fact that this, on the face of it, looks like a pretty sophisticated piece of software, yes it could.

[HiWarp]

I have a question, didn't they say there was something like this worm virus attacking into some of the American defense computer system?  I am all for anything to destroy Iran's attempt in anything especially with nuclear gatherings.  But if it is the same that has attacked into the U.S. then this is something to worry about cause if Muslims do decide to launch anything and our national defense computers are screwy well isn't that dangerous for us?

If I were designing this as a targeted attack on an enemy I wouldn't put it past myself to design two versions of it. One that was meant for the enemy computers and another general purpose worm that could be "safely" used to infect other systems. Safely, as in it has the same fingerprint as the real thing but is not as malicious and destructive. Strictly speaking, it would be a cover your tracks scenario.

Of course, once you release something like that as a targeted attack, you can never be 100% sure it won't escape and do unintended damage.
Unless, of course, you have a fail safe mechanism built into the code.
Assuming that the fail safe mechanism has been properly tested and debugged.
Or that it will even engage as designed, if and when it's needed.

[Zelhar]

I have a question, didn't they say there was something like this worm virus attacking into some of the American defense computer system?  I am all for anything to destroy Iran's attempt in anything especially with nuclear gatherings.  But if it is the same that has attacked into the U.S. then this is something to worry about cause if Muslims do decide to launch anything and our national defense computers are screwy well isn't that dangerous for us?

I don't think so. I read that some other systems in Europe were infected, but the worm/virus targets a specific type of Siemens industrial control program that is used by Iran.

[MassuhDGoodName]

Re:  "What disgusts me is to think of the European engineers who would come to the rescue of Iran just for the cash, if Iran didn't ban them access to the systems and locations they need. "

Countries don't have friends  -  They only have interests.

Israel is no different.

She sells her weapons and other products to Turkey, and continues trading with France, China, and Russia all while they are helping Iran become a nuclear power.

Neither is the U.S.A. any different.

It's easy to think that "we are somehow more moral and different than those other countries", but if you do some investigation into which gigantic American corporations; ones with names like Kellogg, Brown, and Root and Halliburton, have always done business with Iraq under Hussein, the current Iranian regime, and every other dictatorship around the world, you arrive at a most shocking realization.

Even when the State Dept. places sanctions on countries like Iran and North Korea, these very same U.S. corporations which build reactors and prison camps and which deal in heavy armaments simply continue "business as usual" through their setting up of "front" corporations, with their "official headquarters" listed for the record at "dummy" addresses located in offshore tax havens like The Cayman Islands.

So long as they continue strengthening our deadliest enemies in order to earn a buck and do it 'under cover', the Federal Government thinks it's all just fine and dandy and looks the other way, all while our elected leaders make speech after speech at the UN and on the campaign podium "calling for renewed Sanctions against rogue states like Iran!" 

After all, which country is it that for the longest time has been the world's undisputed largest manufacturer and seller of military weaponry to every country in the world?

Not China.

Not Russia or the former USSR.

And not even the UK, France, and Germany combined!

Nope!

All those nasty enemies which threaten us on a daily basis, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, AND THE PLO/HAMAS Terrorists, not only buy their weaponry from the U.S.A. (on credit even!), but the U.S.A. trains them to use them - often right here on our own soil, at our own military bases.

As of late the U.S.A. has been training PLO terrorists as "Special Ops Sniper Unit Commandos".

Now ... What was that you were saying about EU engineeers?

[MassuhDGoodName]

MassuhD strongly recommends that JTF immediately wage a media blitz campaign taking full credit for infecting Iran's computers.

Boasting about it, warning all others that they're next, praising our genius virus specialists, etc.

I think that the entire world will believe it because they'll want to believe it!

[TheCoon]

I guess the Iranian moozlem super-geniuses will have to wait for the Russian/North Korean infidel morons to help them fix the problem. Meanwhile Ralph will be sodomizing himself with a broomhandle in anticipation.

[briann]

I still think it was Muman who infected the computers.  Way to go!!!!!! 

[Ulli]

As a Software Engineer and System Administrator I would simple install on a completely new platform a pristine copy of the operating system, and then re-install all the industrial process software from scratch, then power down all the affected systems and then bring up the new systems in their place. This would effectively rid the system of the malware... They would also have to re-format all their hard-drives after attempting to back up any critical data.

It doesn't sound too difficult to do that... But maybe they are reading our forum?

Ha ha ha

It seems, that the best persons from the great culture nation of Iran fled to the evil infidels. If Achmadinedschad and his gofers will continue their ways, perhaps they will all go down to stone age.

Then they are at least no threat anymore. This would be great. Remember intelligent educated Muslims are the worst.

And if this report is true it shows, that no peoples can live on expense of the former archievements. Every resource is once empty, cultural and scientific too.

[syyuge]

The superior mathematical genius perhaps could not resolve this problem, because the worm may be using some extinct sumerian alphabetical mode rather than any mathematical mode.
 

 

[MassuhDGoodName]

Muman infected Iran's computers !