BBC: Iran arrests 'nuclear spies' accused of cyber attacks

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Iran arrests 'nuclear spies' accused of cyber attacks

Iran has arrested "nuclear spies" on suspicion of being behind cyber attacks on its nuclear program, Iranian state media report.

Press TV says "a number" of people have been apprehended as part of an operation by Iran to counter "massive enemy schemes".

The report comes after the complex worm Stuxnet infected staff computers at Iran's first nuclear power station at Bushehr...

Reports suggest that the Stuxnet virus mutated in Iran and infected 30,000 computers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11459468

[dipsydoodle]

1. Good

.

[Pavulon]

6. ha. guess they dont have gays or hisec workstations in iran(nt)

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It 'mutated' in Iran?

I presume the BBC is trying to say "it was altered in Iran". But 'mutated' is a crappy way of putting it. It makes it sound as it was a random event, like biological mutation.

[Iterate]

3. Internet worms such as this are capable of mutation.

It's written into the code that they can adapt. They then will connect to a central server, when possible, to share the most successful update.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. But did this only happen in Iran?

I didn't know that they were sophisticated enough to compare their results, it's true, and I suppose that does make the 'mutate' metaphor more appropriate. But if people know it mutated in Iran, that seems to show they know a lot about it - enough, you'd think, to shut it down.

[Iterate]

5. It mutated everywhere, but from the looks of this BBC report

the Iranians were particularly panicked for some reason.

It's still too early to tell exactly what happened. The usually good internet security blogs are all over this but so far seem to be full of speculation mixed with teckno-detail. The earliest variant of this goes back to June 2009, so someone has put considerable work into it.

NPR has a science show that is often downright inane, but in this segment they did happen to broadcast a pretty good primer on what we know about the worm as of yesterday. The podcast, stream, or download is here:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201010016

[blogslut]

7. I'm skeptical that they apprehended the actual suspect(s)

In fact, this whole Stuxnet thing has me a bit leery. I've no doubt the worm exists and that it's done major damage. However, the people who unleashed it, well...I'll be quiet now.