Computer worm attacking Iran's nuclear facilities 'includes Biblical link to Israel'
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 08:45PM Israel has been linked to a complex worm currently attacking computers in Iran, which experts claim may have been designed to target the country's nuclear facilities.
The Stuxnet worm, supposedly aimed at slowing Iran's desire to create a nuclear arsenal, appears to include a reference to a Biblical story in which Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them.
The New York Times reports a file inside the Stuxnet code is named 'Myrtus' - a reference to the Hebrew word Esther, the same name as the Old Testament book in which the story appears.
Suspicion over the origin of the computer worm, which appears to have been created to disrupt Tehran's nuclear programme, has fallen on both Israel and the U.S in recent days.
Iran said this week that Stuxnet is continuing to mutate and wreaking havoc on computerised industrial equipment.
The AFP news agency claims the worm has been designed to attack systems commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities.
No one has yet claimed credit for the virus though, with the U.S. denying responsibility.
TShai Blitzblau, the head of the computer warfare laboratory at Maglan, an Israeli company specialising in information security, also told the New York Times he was 'convinced that Israel had nothing to do with Stuxnet'.
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