Did Stuxnet computer worm damage Iran’s uranium enrichment facility?

A sophisticated malworm such as Stuxnet could potentially include code that would cause uranium enriching centrifuges to explode under high pressure, or at a certain date. Did it actually do it? There were reports that Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at the Natanz facility was attacked by Stuxnet and sustained damage. An earlier report suggested that in 2009 that site suffered a serious nuclear accident that reduced the number of uranium enriching centrifuges by at least 25%. Was Stuxnet the reason?

A Cyber War Against Iran: Whodunit?, THE HUFFINGTON POST, by Haggai Carmon:, 13 Oct 10, The Iranians are frantically looking for those responsible for infecting their nuclear and industrial facilities with Stuxnet, an extremely sophisticated and dangerous viral computer malworm…………
Who were the attackers that knew how to penetrate through five zero-day “security holes,” and plant the malworm that not only attacked Iran, but infected computers in other countries as well? Since the malworm was so sophisticated, there is a consensus among experts that it was the product of a state, rather than a ploy of a hacker playing for fun.
The Iranian security services and computer experts are scrambling to rid their computers of the malworm that was “mutating and wreaking havoc on computerized industrial equipment in Iran,” according to IRNA, Iran’s government news agency. Hamid Alipour, the director of Iran Information Technology Company, a government agency added, “The attack is still ongoing and new versions of this virus are spreading.”………….
The Stuxnet attack on Iran first focused on SCADA industrial control systems that are broadly used by energy, nuclear, electrical, water, sewage treatment, telephone, and chemical companies. The damage from a cyber attack on a SCADA system could be substantial…………….
Once a SCADA system is accessed, the attacker can infect it with a computer malworm that could manipulate the data used for operational decisions to cause damage, or modify programs that control critical equipment to shut down or send the system haywire. The malworm can hide the changes it made and even allows remote upgrades of the malworm if countermeasures are employed by the infected target.

A sophisticated malworm such as Stuxnet could potentially include code that would cause uranium enriching centrifuges to explode under high pressure, or at a certain date. Did it actually do it? There were reports that Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at the Natanz facility was attacked by Stuxnet and sustained damage. An earlier report suggested that in 2009 that site suffered a serious nuclear accident that reduced the number of uranium enriching centrifuges by at least 25%. Was Stuxnet the reason?

Haggai Carmon: A Cyber War Against Iran: Whodunit?