Iran admits: We were attacked by another computer virus
Tehran claims to have Duqu malware, virus similar to Stuxnet, under control as allegations blaming Israel for mysterious Revolutionary Guard base blast emerge
Iran said on Sunday it had found a way to "control" the computer malware Duqu, which is similar to Stuxnet virus which in 2010 attacked its nuclear program and infected more than 30,000 computers.
"The software to control the (Duqu) virus has been developed and made available to organizations and corporations" in Iran, head of civil defense Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali told the official IRNA news agency.
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"The elimination (process) was carried out and the organizations penetrated by the virus are under control ... The cyber defense unit works day and night to combat cyber attacks and spy (computer) virus," he added.
Nuclear facility in Bushehr (Photo: EPA)
Duqu infections have been reported in a dozen countries including Iran, France, Britain and India, US computer security firm Symantec said in mid-October.
The virus takes advantage of a previously unknown vulnerability in a Windows font-parsing engine to plant malicious code in the heart of a computer system, according to Microsoft.
Similarities between Duqu and a malicious Stuxnet worm have prompted speculation that the same culprits might be involved, though no links have been proven.
Duqu is similar to Stuxnet but is designed to gather intelligence for future attacks on industrial control systems.
Stuxnet was designed to attack computer control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens and commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other critical infrastructure.
Most Stuxnet infections have been discovered in Iran, giving rise to speculation it was intended to sabotage nuclear facilities there. The worm was crafted to recognize the system it was designed to attack.
'The more the merrier'
The New York Times reported in January that US and Israeli intelligence services collaborated to develop the computer worm to sabotage Iran's efforts to make a nuclear bomb.
The report comes just a day after a mysterious explosion killed at least 17 people at an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base near Tehran. Iran claims the blast was an accident but US blogger Richard Silverstein said Saturday that Israel was the mastermind.
In his blog, Tikun Olam, Silverstein quotes an Israeli expert as saying that the Mossad was responsible for the explosion, in collaboration with the Iranian militant opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq.
In an interview with Army Radio, Defense minister Ehud Barak said that he didn't know what caused the blast but added "the more the merrier."
Dudi Cohen contributed to the report
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