US, Israel behind Stuxnet worm: Iran

The head of the Iranian Passive Defense Organization told IRNA on Saturday that the German engineering company Siemens AG provided the information on the software used at Iranian industrial sites. 

“The research and inquiry into the matter indicates that the Stuxnet worm had been disseminated from sources in the US and Israel," Gholam-Reza Jalali stated. 

He said that the malware could have caused tragic accidents and loss of life if Iranian experts had not discovered and dealt with it in due time. 

The official also called on Iranian Foreign Ministry to seek damages from any country or company involved in “the hostile action.” 

Stuxnet, first indentified by Iranian officials in June, is a malware designed to infect computers using German industrial Siemens Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) -- a control system favored by industries that manage water supplies, oil rigs, and power plants. 

In July, media reports claims that Stuxnet had targeted industrial computers around the globe with Iran being the main target of the attack. They said the country's newly launched Bushehr power plant was at the center of the cyber attack. 

However, Iranian experts detected the worm in time, thus averting any damage to the country's industrial sites and resources.