‘Iranian nuclear facilities immune to cyber attacks’

Director of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization has reassured that the country’s nuclear facilities are immune to enemy cyber attacks.

“Iranian experts enjoy the necessary know-how to counter cyber threats,” Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali said on Monday.

“Many viruses are produced worldwide everyday which are monitored by [Iran’s] cyber defense headquarters. So far the viruses have left no destructive impact on the country,” Jalali added.

The official added that after countering the Stuxnet virus, Iran amassed the necessary knowledge for combating the viruses Stars and Duqu all of which have been successfully dealt with.

Duqu, discovered on September 1, 2011, is a sophisticated Trojan which acts as a backdoor into a system and facilitates the theft of private intelligence.

Security software manufacturer Symantec says parts of the Duqu code base are nearly identical to the infamous Stuxnet worm, “but with a completely different purpose.”

Iran announced last November that it had developed a software program that can control the Duqu spyware.

Earlier in June 2010, Iranian officials identified another virus called Stuxnet, averting any damage to the country’s industrial sites and resources.

Stuxnet is a malware designed to infect computers using supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems made by the German company Siemens — which are favored by industries that manage water supplies, oilrigs, and power plants.

In July 2010, media reports claimed that Stuxnet had targeted industrial computers around the globe, with Iran being the main target of the attack. The reports said Iran’s newly launched Bushehr nuclear power plant was at the center of the cyber attack.