Computer Worm

The story as reported by Technology Blog Red Herring:

New, Super Virus Worms through Iran Government Databases

How much havoc can a super computer virus wreck on Iran's data centers, and how much damage will it leave in its wake?

"Iran has confirmed that at least 30,000 computers have been infected by the Stuxnet computer worm, a very sophisticated computer virus aimed at SCADA, or “supervisory control or data acquisition,” which run everything from power plants and factories to oil pipelines and military operations. Nearly 60 percent of all contaminated computers in the first wave of the infection were in Iran. Some experts have hypothesized that the virus is actually aimed at Iran, seeking to cripple Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, suspected by many in the world to be a mask for Iran's ambitions for a nuclear bomb, though the government claims the reactor is for energy purposes only." -more

And here's some interesting info from the story in the Tamil Daily Mirror:

"The sophistication of the Stuxnet virus is such that experts believe it could not have been created by one hacker. It is the work of a group with vast resources or a nation state. The worm they created tells an industrial equipment to behave in a manner contrary to its programming.

For instance, if a nuclear missile of country A is programmed to hit country B, Stuxnet could either neutralize the command or reverse the path of the projectile to hit the country A itself. The day is not far away when thousands of computer experts will have the knowledge to hack computers that control nuclear weapons. The nuclear holocaust is at the fingertip of a hacker. The world is on the brink of an apocalypse. When a cyber-attack happens, it is difficult to know from where the attack originated. It could be from an enemy country, or from a ship in international waters, or from atop the Himalayas, or from within one's country itself." -the full newspaper piece

Your thoughts?