The Stuxnet computer virus has set Tehran’s nuclear program back by 24 months, an Israeli newspaper reported Wednesday, quoting a top German computer consultant.
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The malicious software, or malware, reportedly targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities this year, causing damage. Stuxnet infiltrates and reprograms Windows operating systems.
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It will take two years for Iran to get back on track, Ralph Langer told the Jerusalem Post.
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This was nearly as effective as a military strike, but even better since there are no fatalities and no full-blown war. From a military perspective, this was a huge success, he said.
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Langer, one of the first experts to analyze the Stuxnet code, said Iran’s best move would be to throw out all the computers infected by the virus, which he termed the most advanced and aggressive malware in history.
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But even once all the computers were thrown out, Iran would still have to ensure that those used by outside contractors were free of the virus, he said.
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Although no one has claimed credit for Stuxnet, Israel, which regards Iran’s nuclear program as its most pressing existential threat — has been touted as the most likely creator. Langer said he believed at least two countries — possibly Israel and the United States — were behind the virus.
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We can say that it must have taken several years to develop, and we arrived at this conclusion through code analysis, since the code on the control systems is 15,000 lines of code, and this is a huge amount, he said.
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This piece of evidence led us to conclude that this is not by a hacker. It had to be a country, and we can also conclude that even one nation-state would not have been able to do this on its own.
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The Jerusalem Post also quoted Eric Byes, a computer security expert whose Web site provides solutions for…