US and Israel were behind Stuxnet claims researcher
Israel and the United States created the Stuxnet worm to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme, a leading security expert has claimed. Ralph Langner told a conference in California that the malicious software was designed to cripple systems that could help build an Iranian bomb. Mr Langner was one of the first researchers to show how Stuxnet could take control of industrial equipment. It is widely believed that its target was machinery used to enrich uranium. Speaking at the TED conference in Long Beach, California, Mr Langner said:
"My opinion is that Mossad [Israel's intelligence agency] is involved." [However he speculated that Israel was not the main driver behind the creation of Stuxnet.] "There is only one leading source, and that is the United States," said Mr Langner.
In a recent report on Stuxnet, the security firm Symantec said that it would have taken a team of between five and 10 developers, six months to create the worm. Mr Langner said that the project would have required "inside information", so detailed that "they probably knew the shoe size of the operator." Stuxnet first came to light in July 2010. Nearly 60% of reported infections were inside Iran.