Stuxnet virus triggers an international whodunit
Compared with last summer’s busted Russian spy ring, which was mocked for using buggy software and not-so-secret wireless networks, the spooks presumably behind the ambitious and meticulously crafted Stuxnet computer worm appear to have restored some professional credibility to the field.
That is, if a state-sponsored group was indeed behind the virus, which targets and seeks to reprogram a certain kind of control system used in oil pipelines, electrical power grids and nuclear power plants. Like any tale of international intrigue worth its salt, the ongoing story is long on speculation about responsible parties, motives and methods and short on well-established facts. As the country with the greatest number of infected computers, Iran appears to be the target of the virus, though many other countries have also been affected, according to security firm Symantec.
Numerous observers think Stuxnet is the handiwork of Israel, which feels threatened by Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. One of the more interesting pieces of information supporting that possibility was the discovery that a file used in the worm is named Myrtus, a reference to the Old Testament’s Book of Esther in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them, report John Markoff and David Sanger in the New York Times.
