Stuxnet Attack Over as Worm Self-Destructs

Iran: Civilian Nuclear Program Survived Attack

The massive Stuxnet worm attacks, which US and Israeli hackers launched against the Iranian civilian nuclear program and which eventually was attacking Siemens industrial computers across the planet, has self-destructed this morning, ending a major headache that spanned the planet.

The Stuxnet Worm was first discovered in June 2010 attacking Iranian industrial computers related to the enrichment of uranium. It damaged several centrifuges and then started attacking computers across the planet. The worm was developed by the CIA, with the help of the Department of Energy and Israeli hackers.

Though the designers didn’t have the foresight to keep the worm from attacking computers across the globe, they did apparently think to order it to self-destruct, and while the crisis isn’t entirely over (no word yet on Stuxnet variants) the worst seems to be behind everyone.

Iran’s Fars news agency was also cheering the end of Stuxnet, pointing out that the worm had failed to destroy the civilian program and that Iran is still enriching uranium for civilian purposes.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.