Stuxnet worm targets Iran nuclear plant

The Stuxnet worm struck again. This time the target was an Iranian nuclear power plant, fueling rumors that Stuxnet was designed to attack Iranian nuclear facil...

The Stuxnet worm strikes again.

This time the target was an Iranian nuclear power plant, fueling rumors that Stuxnet was designed to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, Wall Street Journal reports.

So far, 60 percent of the Stuxnet attacks have been directed at Iranian targets.

The worm is capable of taking over control systems and, more importantly, can uncover information about how things are made at the manufacturing level.

Stuxnet has targeted the Siemens industrial control systems used in Iran’s and other countries’ facilities by exploiting a security gap in Microsoft Windows. Siemens AG and Microsoft Corp. have issued patches to close that gap.

The Department of Homeland Security has been tracking Stuxnet for months and said the worm is spread from computer to computer using widely available portable memory devices.

The worm represents the first publicly acknowledged set of attacks targeting computer -control systems.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update brought to you by Tripwire. For more cybersecurity news, click here.

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