Mossad: 'Stuxnet is our baby; Obama disclosed it for his reelection campaign'
A
group of Mossad agents speaking with Haaretz's Yossi Melman on
condition of anonymity have said that the Mossad - and not the Bush
administration - developed Stuxnet, and that President Obama is now trying to take credit for it in a bid to help his reelection campaign (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News via Atlantic Wire). Please recall the David Sanger piece
in the New York Times about Stuxnet, which I blogged last week, which
claimed that the Bush administration had begun developing Stuxnet, that
President Obama had ordered it accelerated, and that Israel had only
joined in later. Now, look at what Melman has to say about it. The Israeli officials actually told me a different version. They said that it was Israeli intelligence that began, a few years earlier, a cyberspace campaign to damage and slow down Iran’s nuclear intentions. And only later they managed to convince the USA to consider a joint operation — which, at the time, was unheard of. Even friendly nations are hesitant to share their technological and intelligence resources against a common enemy.Melman, and his writing partner Dan Raviv, promise more details on Mossad - CIA cooperation in their upcoming book (maybe if I'm really lucky they'll send me a review copy), which is due out next month. But they do give a hint as to the timing of the New York Times article.
Yet my Israeli sources understand the sensitivity and the timing of the issue and are not going to be dragged into a battle over taking credit. “We know that it is the presidential election season,” one Israeli added, ”and don’t want to spoil the party for President Obama and his officials, who shared in a twisted and manipulated way some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of the success of cyberwar.”There's nothing Obama won't do to be reelected. Nothing at all.
UPDATE 4:02 PM
The Spin about Centrifuges: Let America Take Credit For Delaying Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions
Well-informed Israeli security and intelligence officials responded with a smile and a pinch of verbal salt, when asked about Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power the book coming out (this coming week) by David Sanger, The New York Times reporter.
In
his book Sanger argues that it was an American idea to attack Iranian
nuclear installations with sophisticated and clandestine cyberspace
warfare – planting viruses and worms in Iran’s computers. According to
the writer, the operation — code-named ”Olympic Games” — was initiated
in 2007 by the Bush administration and sped up under President Obama. In
an excerpt adapted from his book by the Times, Sanger wrote
that only at a later stage were Israeli intelligence experts
and computer wizards were brought in and joined forces.
The Israeli officials actually told
me a different version. They said that it was Israeli intelligence that
began, a few years earlier, a cyberspace campaign to damage and slow
down Iran’s nuclear intentions. And only later they managed to convince
the USA to consider a joint operation — which, at the time, was unheard
of. Even friendly nations are hesitant to share their technological and
intelligence resources against a common enemy. In our book, Spies Against Armageddon,
we will reveal much more about the special strategic relations and
cooperation between the CIA and the Mossad and the importance given by
the Aman (military intelligence) to cyberspace warfare.
Yet my Israeli sources understand
the sensitivity and the timing of the issue and are not going to be
dragged into a battle over taking credit. “We know that it is the
presidential election season,” one Israeli added, ”and don’t want to
spoil the party for President Obama and his officials, who shared in a
twisted and manipulated way some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of the
success of cyberwar.
Mossad: "Stuxnet is our Baby" Pres Obama disclosed it for electoral reasons.
Mossad: "Stuxnet is our Baby" Pres Obama disclosed it for electoral reasons.(TA).Israel’s officials have a message for anyone praising the CIA for its sophisticated cyber attack on Iran: It was our baby. The Stuxnet computer worm, described by David Sanger in The New York Times last week as an invention by the Bush administration, was actually developed by Mossad, according to Israeli officials speaking with Haaretz journalist Yossi Melman on condition of anonymity:
The Israeli officials actually told me a different version. They said that it was Israeli intelligence that began, a few years earlier, a cyberspace campaign to damage and slow down Iran’s nuclear intentions. And only later they managed to convince the USA to consider a joint operation — which, at the time, was unheard of.
The irony of course is that both U.S. and Israeli officials spent years denying knowledge
of who carried out the attacks, which reportedly destroyed thousands of
Iran’s centrifuges, ever since it became public in 2010. Now that it’s
out, it’s time to claim credit! Of course, if you read Sanger’s account, he certainly doesn’t diminish the expertise of Israel’s spies:
Israel’s Unit 8200, a part of its military, had technical expertise that rivaled the N.S.A.’s, and the Israelis had deep intelligence about operations at Natanz that would be vital to making the cyberattack a success.
Regardless, these Israeli officials say Sanger’s account was too
generous to the CIA. Amusingly, one of the officials tries to play it
cool, in his remark to Melman:
My Israeli sources understand the sensitivity and the timing of the issue and are not going to be dragged into a battle over taking credit. “We know that it is the presidential election season,” one Israeli added, ”and don’t want to spoil the party for President Obama and his officials, who shared in a twisted and manipulated way some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of the success of cyberwar.”
Translation: We don’t need to tell anyone we’re the ones responsible for Stuxnet, but just so you know, we’re responsible for Stuxnet.Read the full story here.
Israel's officials have a message for anyone praising the CIA for its
sophisticated cyber attack on Iran: It was our baby. The Stuxnet
computer worm, described by David Sanger in The New York Times
last week as an invention by the Bush administration, was actually
developed by Mossad, according to Israeli officials speaking with Haaretz journalist Yossi Melman on condition of anonymity:
The Israeli officials actually told me a different version. They said that it was Israeli intelligence that began, a few years earlier, a cyberspace campaign to damage and slow down Iran’s nuclear intentions. And only later they managed to convince the USA to consider a joint operation — which, at the time, was unheard of.
The irony of course is that both U.S. and Israeli officials spent years denying knowledge
of who carried out the attacks, which reportedly destroyed thousands of
Iran's centrifuges, ever since it became public in 2010. Now that it's
out, it's time to claim credit! Of course, if you read Sanger's account, he certainly doesn't diminish the expertise of Israel's spies:
Israel’s Unit 8200, a part of its military, had technical expertise that rivaled the N.S.A.’s, and the Israelis had deep intelligence about operations at Natanz that would be vital to making the cyberattack a success.
Regardless, these Israeli officials say Sanger's account was too
generous to the CIA. Amusingly, one of the officials tries to play it
cool, in his remark to Melman:
My Israeli sources understand the sensitivity and the timing of the issue and are not going to be dragged into a battle over taking credit. “We know that it is the presidential election season,” one Israeli added, ”and don’t want to spoil the party for President Obama and his officials, who shared in a twisted and manipulated way some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of the success of cyberwar.”
Translation: We don't need to tell anyone we're the ones responsible
for Stuxnet, but just so you know, we're responsible for Stuxnet.
Israel and US fingered for Stuxnet attack on Iran
Worm tested in secret desert nuclear complex, NYT claims
Posted in Security, 17th January 2011 14:52 GMT
The US and Israel jointly developed the infamous Stuxnet worm before
using the sophisticated malware to sabotage key components of Iran's
controversial nuclear program, according to an investigation by the New York Times.
Stuxnet selectively infects industrial control (SCADA) systems from Siemens, establishing a backdoor that creates a means to reprogram compromised systems. The worm initially spread using a battery of four zero-day Windows vulnerabilities before using insecure network shares and USB sticks to spread across networks. Windows machines can carry the infection but malware only comes into play if infected systems are used to operate certain industrial control systems.
The malware is finely tuned so that it can alter the speed of
high-speed frequency converter drives, such as those used in uranium
enrichment, as explained in a blog post by Symantec here. It doesn't do anything for mainstream industrial control set-ups, even after they are connected to industrial control systems.
Stuxnet began spreading in June 2009 but its sophistication,
including elaborate steps to disguise its presence on infected systems,
meant it was not detected until June 2010. The malware infected hundreds
of thousands of systems, with most infections appearing in Iran and
Indonesia.
After months of confusing and occasionally conflicting statements, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently confirmed that the worm had sabotaged uranium-enrichment centrifuges at Natanz. Production at the facility reportedly dropped by 30 per cent, setting Iran's nuclear programme back by months as a result.
The consensus among anti-virus analysts, who have spent months poring over the details of the 1.5MB malware code, was that the malware would have taken weeks to develop by a skilled team – with access to industrial control systems, for testing.
The absence of any clear financial motive, and the obvious time and trouble needed to develop the malware, point to the likely involvement of a state-sponsored intelligence agency.
Either Israel or the US have long been fingered as the most likely suspects in creating the worm. The New York Times investigation fleshes out this theory, a little, by saying both Israel and the US created the worm.
Unnamed sources at Israel's Dimona Complex said the malware was developed there over the last two years as part of a joint US-Israeli operation designed to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme. The foundations of this work were reportedly laid by American intelligence agencies, who identified the type of controllers Iran intended to use and their vulnerabilities back in 2008. Testing of the Siemens controllers took place at the Idaho National Laboratory as part of a larger exercise in cybersecurity testing, according to the sources.
The NYT story doesn't explain how the malware was delivered, though it has been previously speculatively suggested that the malware was introduced by Russian sub-contractors at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plan, either accidentally or deliberately.
While fleshing out the Mossad-created-Stuxnet theory somewhat, the NYT piece is unlikely to convince anyone who disagrees with this version of events. Alternative explanations exist, such as one theory that the malware originated in China. ®
Stuxnet selectively infects industrial control (SCADA) systems from Siemens, establishing a backdoor that creates a means to reprogram compromised systems. The worm initially spread using a battery of four zero-day Windows vulnerabilities before using insecure network shares and USB sticks to spread across networks. Windows machines can carry the infection but malware only comes into play if infected systems are used to operate certain industrial control systems.
After months of confusing and occasionally conflicting statements, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently confirmed that the worm had sabotaged uranium-enrichment centrifuges at Natanz. Production at the facility reportedly dropped by 30 per cent, setting Iran's nuclear programme back by months as a result.
The consensus among anti-virus analysts, who have spent months poring over the details of the 1.5MB malware code, was that the malware would have taken weeks to develop by a skilled team – with access to industrial control systems, for testing.
The absence of any clear financial motive, and the obvious time and trouble needed to develop the malware, point to the likely involvement of a state-sponsored intelligence agency.
Either Israel or the US have long been fingered as the most likely suspects in creating the worm. The New York Times investigation fleshes out this theory, a little, by saying both Israel and the US created the worm.
Unnamed sources at Israel's Dimona Complex said the malware was developed there over the last two years as part of a joint US-Israeli operation designed to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme. The foundations of this work were reportedly laid by American intelligence agencies, who identified the type of controllers Iran intended to use and their vulnerabilities back in 2008. Testing of the Siemens controllers took place at the Idaho National Laboratory as part of a larger exercise in cybersecurity testing, according to the sources.
The NYT story doesn't explain how the malware was delivered, though it has been previously speculatively suggested that the malware was introduced by Russian sub-contractors at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plan, either accidentally or deliberately.
While fleshing out the Mossad-created-Stuxnet theory somewhat, the NYT piece is unlikely to convince anyone who disagrees with this version of events. Alternative explanations exist, such as one theory that the malware originated in China. ®
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