Cyber attack on Iranian industry appears well-funded

The fast-spreading malicious computer program — which has turned up in industrial programs around the world and which Iran said had appeared in the computers of workers in its nuclear program — was a specifically aimed attack that ended up scattering randomly around the globe.

Computer-security specialists who have examined it say the malware was created by a government and is an example of clandestine cyberwarfare. While there have been suspicions of other government uses of computer worms and viruses in cyberwarfare, Stuxnet — its name was derived from some of the file names/strings in its code — is the first to go after industrial systems. Unlike those other attacks, this bit of malware did not stay invisible.

The program splattered on thousands of computer systems around the world, and much of its impact has been on those systems, rather than on what appears to have been its intended target, Iranian equipment. Computer-security specialists also are puzzled by why it was created to spread so widely...
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