West suspected of cyber war against Iran

The Stuxnet virus has infected 30,000 computers in the country, including some at the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Analysts say that the virus affecting computers controlling industrial systems in Iran is so sophisticated that it could only be the work of a government-funded intelligence agency. The goal of the Stuxnet virus appears not to be financial gain or mischief, the usual aim of hackers, but the disruption of industrial computer systems. It’s also spread to computers in Pakistan, Indonesia, and India and is believed to have originated from a single USB key. Iran’s nuclear program has rankled many Western nations, but some observers say that Israel’s intelligence corps, known as Unit 8200, is the most likely culprit. The virus may be behind an accident at Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant in July 2009.