Key computer systems in Iran have again come under attack from a powerful malware that was first unleashed three years ago by the United States and Israel to thwart Tehran’s plans to develop nuclear weapons.

Iranian officials blamed the Christmas Day attacks, which targeted computer systems at a power plant and other industries, as well as a Culture Ministry information center, on American and Israeli hackers.

In 2009, the Stuxnet worm infiltrated computers operating Iran’s nuclear power program, resulting in uranium enrichment centrifuges spinning out of control and becoming damaged. The cyber attack reportedly set back the country’s clandestine effort to build a nuclear arsenal of weapons.

Stuxnet was developed under a covert U.S. program, according to The New York Times.

The newspaper also reported that the December 25 attacks may have been in response to Iranian hackers going after computers in Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and some American banks a few months ago.

On December 31, the Iranian government claimed that during a six-day naval drill staged to show off new torpedoes, the Navy’s “cyber defense group” repelled a mock attack on its defensive computer network.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Iran Suggests Attacks on Computer Systems Came From the U.S. and Israel (by Rick Gladstone, New York Times)

Iran 'Fends Off New Stuxnet Cyber Attack' (BBC News)

Stuxnet Attack on Iran…the Worm that Keeps on Giving (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Did Cyber Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Program Launch a New Era of Non-Violent Warfare? (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)