World

Did Israel use a virus to spy on Iran nuclear talks?

The Wall Street Journal claims the virus is widely believed to be used by Israeli spies

Reuters June 10, 2015

PHOTO: REUTERS

GENEVA: Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab claimed on Wednesday that a computer virus was used to hack into venues where international talks on Iran's nuclear programme were being hosted.

The Wall Street Journal said the virus was widely believed to be used by Israeli spies and Kaspersky had linked it to "three luxury European hotels" used in the negotiations involving Iran and six world powers.

Kaspersky said it looked into the "cyber-intrusion" after detecting the ‘Duqu 2.0’ malware in its own systems in early spring this year, which it said was designed to spy on its technology, research, and internal processes.

Read: Pro-Saudi hackers seize Iran TV's social media accounts

Other victims of ‘Duqu’ had been found in Western countries, the Middle East and Asia, it said in an emailed statement.

"Most notably, some of the new 2014-2015 infections are linked to the P5+1 events and venues related to the negotiations with Iran about a nuclear deal," the statement said. "P5+1" refers to the six world powers negotiating with Iran on curbs to its disputed nuclear programme – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

The talks have been held in Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux, Munich and Vienna.

Read: Nuclear issue: ‘Iran deal will offer opportunities for Pakistan’

In February, the United States accused Israel of using selective leaks from the talks to distort the US position.

Israel has denounced the diplomatic opening to Iran, saying it doubts any agreement arising from the talks will sufficiently restrain the disputed nuclear programme of its arch-enemy.

During various rounds of the talks, Israeli officials said they knew what was being discussed from various sources including intelligence gathering and information relayed by allies.

The officials did not elaborate on the latter, but did assert that Israel never spied on the United States, its closest ally.

The unidentified group behind the ‘Duqu’ malware, according to Kaspersky, was "one of the most skilled, mysterious and powerful threat actors in the APT (advanced persistent threat) world."

Advanced persistent threats typically refer to sophisticated software created by state-backed cyberspies.

Kaspersky said 'Duqu' was previously used for an unspecified cyberattack in 2011 that bore similarities to Stuxnet, a computer "worm" that partially sabotaged Iran's nuclear programme in 2009-2010 by destroying a thousand or more centrifuges that were enriching uranium.

Another 'Duqu' attack, Kaspersky said, was carried out "in relation to" the commemoration of the 70th anniversary in January this year of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp in Poland. That ceremony was attended by the heads of state of Germany, France, Britain and other nations.

The targets of the 'Duqu' attacks in 2011 and more recently were not specified by Kaspersky.

COMMENTS (2)

Adele | 9 years ago | Reply First they make the assumption that Israel was doing the spying, as if there are no other countries that would be interested in doing the same. Second, they act like this was a big deal. What country doesn't spy? And third, Kaspersky is a Russian company that is probably doing Russia's dirty work. It's just like Popular Mechanics shoring up the Bush Administration's version of the World Trade Center attack. Why would the Wall Street Journal go the way of Newsweek, which made similar baseless claims a while back, and be suspiciously the only major new source to publish this? And any Internet security company that is HQ'd in a country that has been behind so much shenanigans lately is not a company I'd trust.

Karachiwala | 9 years ago | Reply This world is getting to know the new form of warfare, cyberwarfare. And in the context of cyber warfare, its not the attack that poses the real threat. But the counter attack! in contrast to conventional warfare, where the victim party is solely dependent on technology lag. Cyber warfare is different. example: a wmd is dropped in country A, it has created a massive destruction. But the victim country can not reverse engineer the attack ( the wmd is lost too). But in Cyber warfare, its little different. Country A is a victim of a cyber attack, but now it can reciprocate more dangerous attack. It totally depends upon Victims ability to: detect: detect the attack contain: contain the virus modify: modify the code develop: develop advance version Counter: mount the equal or more deadly attack more catastrophically! cheers!

Replying to X