Experts: Israeli Attack on Iran Site Similar in Complexity to Stuxnet

Cyberattack was used to sabotage site, cause explosion

Information continues to emerge on Israel’s cyberattack against Iran’s Natanz enrichment site, with experts saying that they believe it was an attack of similar complexity to the Stuxnet attack. The attack was a sabotage and caused an explosion.

Identified in 2010, the Stuxnet attack was a joint cyberattack against Iran’s industrial computers, developed by the United States and Israel jointly. The attack was said to have ruined about 20% of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.

The problem was that Stuxnet got out in the wild and started attacking industrial computers worldwide, doing substantial damage all over the place. The exploits used in that attack were quickly duplicated and led to a flurry of cyberattacks.

Israel seems fine with taking “credit” for the Natanz attack, but so far, all that’s known is the report of some damage to Iran’s nuclear site, and we don’t know what spillover effects will come from this latest attack.

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.