Category Archives: WMD’s
Stuxnet worm rampaging through Iran: IT official
TEHRAN (AFP) – The Stuxnet worm is mutating and wreaking further havoc on computerised industrial equipment in Iran where about 30,000 IP addresses have already been infected, IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
“The attack is still ongoing and new versions of this virus are spreading,” Hamid Alipour, deputy head of Iran’s Information Technology Company, was quoted as saying by IRNA, Iran’s official news agency.
Stuxnet, which was publicly identified in June, was tailored for Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, systems commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities.
The self-replicating malware has been found lurking on Siemens systems mostly in India, Indonesia and Pakistan, but the heaviest infiltration appears to be in Iran, according to researchers.
The hackers, who enjoyed “huge investments” from a series of foreign countries or organisations, designed the worm to exploit five different security vulnerabilities, Alipour said while insisting that Stuxnet was not a “normal” worm.
He said his company had begun the cleanup process at Iran’s “sensitive centres and organisations,” the report said.
Analysts say Stuxnet may have been designed to target Iran’s nuclear facilities. But Iranian officials have denied the Islamic republic’s first nuclear plant at Bushehr was among the addresses penetrated by the worm.
“This virus has not caused any damage to the main systems of the Bushehr power plant,” Bushehr project manager Mahmoud Jafari said on Sunday.
He, however, added the worm had infected some “personal computers of the plant’s personnel.”
Alipour, whose company is tasked with planning and developing networks in Iran, said personal computers were also being targeted by the malware.
“Although the main objective of the Stuxnet virus is to destroy industrial systems, its threat to home computer users is serious,” Alipour said.
The worm is able to recognise a specific facility’s control network and then destroy it, according to German computer security researcher Ralph Langner, who has been analysing the malicious software. Continue Reading →
Stuxnet computer worm ‘targeted Iranian nuclear power station’ in world’s most sophisticated virus attack
By Niall Firth
Last updated at 3:18 PM on 23rd September 2010
The world’s first cyber ‘super weapon’ may have been specifically designed to target a nuclear power station, experts believe.
A computer virus called Stuxnet was first detected in June and has been described as one of the most sophisticated ‘worms’ ever created.
Now internet security experts fear that it was created to target a real-world installation such as a power station, possibly in Iran.
The worm targets computer systems that are not connected to the internet for security reasons. Instead it infects PCs running Microsoft Windows via infected USB memory drives.
The Bushehr nuclear plant may have been the target for the cyber attack, experts believe
After it has hijacked a PC, Stuxnet looks for Siemens software that runs industrial control systems in facilities like factories and power plants.
It then launches an attack by reprogramming software to give any industrial machinery new, potentially dangerous, instructions.
It is capable of taking control of key processes and is able to set off a sequence that could cause the entire system to self-destruct, say experts.
David Emm, a senior security researcher at Kaspersky, said what made Stuxnet different from other viruses was its targeted nature.
His firm has worked with Microsoft to find holes in their code which could be exploited by the worm.
Mr Emm said: What sets it apart is that it is not indiscriminate. Most viruses that are created are normally blasted out like a blunderbuss. But Stuxnet is written to only target a certain systems.
‘It finds flaws in code and uses it like an open window in a house, like a jemmy to make a bigger gap’, he said. Continue Reading →
Terror in Russia. Islam in action
1 in custody at Miami airport; 4 concourses shut
AP – Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue vehicles are shown at the arrival level at Miami International Airport … Yahoo news:
MIAMI – Federal officials say a passenger has been taken into custody after screeners detected something suspicious in a checked bag at Miami International Airport.
A statement by the Transportation Security Administration says its investigators, a Miami-Dade police bomb squad and other law enforcement agencies were on the scene.
The federal statement says four of the six Miami airport termianals had been evacuated and airport roadways also were closed as a safety precaution.
The statement does not give further details about what a TSA screener found at about 9 p.m. Thursday.
Authorites say the evacuation continued early Friday and urge anyone with departures from Miami to check with their carrier.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
MIAMI (AP) — Federal officials say a passenger has been taken into custody after screeners detected something suspicious in a checked bag at Miami International Airport.
A statement by the Transportation Security Administration says its investigators, a Miami-Dade police bomb squad and other law enforcement agencies were on the scene.
The federal statement says four of the six Miami airport termianals had been evacuated and airport roadways also were closed as a safety precaution.
The statement does not give further details about what a TSA found at about 9 p.m. Thursday.
Authorites say the evacuation continued early Friday and urge anyone with departures from Miami to check with their carrier.
Project Samossa: Did Canada get a wakeup call on Homegrown Islamic terrorism?
From the New English Review:
Ottawa police on Project Samossa Counterterrorism raids
A tip of the hat to Canadian lawyer and intelligence expert David Harris in Ottawa for this latest episode of home grown terrorism north of the border.
In a series of sweeps in Canada’s capital of Ottawa on Wednesday, an RCMP national security investigation resulted in the arrests of three Muslim Canadian suspects. They are Hiva Alizadeh , Misbahuddin Ahmed and James Lara. They were allegedly involved in a plot to create improvised explosive devices for possible attacks on government offices and Canadian Coalition forces in Afghanistan. The RCMP uncovered evidence including sophisticated computer circuitry and materials for remote bomb making.
As a report in the Ottawa Citizen noted the individuals arrested harbored Jihadist hatred of Canadian values and were educated leaders in the Muslim community:
Two of the accused men are professionals — a doctor (and father of three) and an x-ray technician.
The third studied to be an electrical engineer. All are apparently intellectually mature individuals rooted in Canadian life. One even appeared on the reality program Canadian Idol. [See the Vlad Tepes blog Canadian Idol video of fourth suspect Dr. Khurram Sher, here]. While much is still to be learned about them, poverty, deprivation and social alienation do not appear to have been part their alleged descent to homicidal hatred.
“This group posed a real and serious threat to the citizens of National Capital Region and Canada’s national security,” said RCMP Chief Supt. Serge Therriault, head of criminal operations for the capital region, told an Ottawa news conference Thursday.
[Vlad Tepes blog has an edited English language video of RCMP Supt. Therriault’s news conference here].
He said an RCMP-led national security investigation employing about 100 joint-forces officers for the past year was forced to move on the suspects this week to prevent “financial support” going to international terrorists for weapons to attack western coalition forces.
Raids on two west Ottawa addresses Wednesday uncovered more than 50 circuit boards police believe were intended to remotely trigger detonators for improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Also seized was what police described as a “vast quantity” of schematics, videos, drawings, instruction books and electronic components for IEDs. Investigators believe the suspects are part of a domestic terrorist group with links to international terrorism. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service was the first to begin investigating the individuals, though no details have been released.
Press conference: Ottawa terror plot
The Iran gets the bomb song. Latma
The whole program:
Turkey uses chem weapons against Kurds?
Another reason, as if one was needed, not to let them into the EU.
From Der Spiegel with a H/T to Fjordman
Shocking Images of Dead Kurdish Fighters
Turkey Accused of Using Chemical Weapons against PKK
By Daniel Steinvorth and Yassin Musharbash
REUTERS
Turkish soldiers on patrol in a Kurdish area of southeastern Turkey: Did the Turkish military use chemical weapons against the PKK?
It would be difficult to exceed the horror shown in the photos, which feature burned, maimed and scorched body parts. The victims are scarcely even recognizable as human beings. Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists believe the people in the photos are eight members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) underground movement, who are thought to have been killed in September 2009.
In March, the activists gave the photos to a German human rights delegation comprised of Turkey experts, journalists and politicians from the far-left Left Party, as SPIEGEL reported at the end of July. Now Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries has confirmed the authenticity of the photos, and a forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the initial suspicion, saying that it is highly probable that the eight Kurds died “due to the use of chemical substances.”
Did the Turkish army in fact use chemical weapons and, by doing so, violate the Chemical Weapons Convention it had ratified?
Repeated ‘Mysterious Incidents’ Continue Reading →
THREE EMPLOYEES OF US EMBASSY IN FRANCE BEING TREATED FOR POISON
THREE EMPLOYEES OF US EMBASSY IN FRANCE BEING TREATED FOR POISONING AFTER OPENING MAIL – POLICE
No doubt Obama will blame it on the cheese
Bomb rocks Ukraine Church
Kyivpost:
Svyato-Pokrovsky Cathedral in Zaporizhya
Updated: Bomb blast in Ukrainian church kills one, wounds nine
Yesterday at 20:00 | Associated Press
An Emergencies Ministry official in Ukraine says a bomb blast at a southern Orthodox church has wounded nine people and one dead – an 80 year old nun Lyudmyla.
The woman died on the operation table, according to Zaporizhya mass media.
Yulia Barysheva told The Associated Press Wednesday that a homemade explosive device detonated near the entrance to the church, in the southern city of Zaporozhye.
The blast comes on the day the former Soviet nation marks the anniversary of its conversion to Christianity in 988 AD.
Nationalist groups have protested the visit of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kiril, who is on the second to last day of an eight-day visit. There was no official word of a motive.
South Korea on alert: Possible cyber attack from North
S. Korea on alert for possible N. Korean cyber attack
Reported by Kyodo on Wednesday, 28 July 2010 (7 hours ago) 
South Korea‘s presidential office is on alert against a possible cyber attack by North Korea after receiving related intelligence reports, the presidential spokeswoman said Wednesday. ”The National Cyber Security Center obtained intelligence on a (possible) cyber attack and (the presidential office) was placed on alert as of yesterday to actively cope with things if the hacking happens,” Kim Hee Jung said in a press briefing.
Stratfor: EU ties Venezuela to Iran nuke program
Venezuela: EU Freezes Bank’s Assets STRATFOR:
July 27, 2010
The European Union ordered an obligatory freeze of assets belonging to Banco Internacional de Desarrollo de Venezuela in all EU member states for its alleged links to the Iranian nuclear program through the financial institution’s parent company, Export Development Bank of Iran, Globovision reported July 27. The Venezuelan bank has denied the allegations.
N. Korea vows nuclear war
Belicose North Korea vows to use nuclear weapons should South Korea and the US do war games in preperation for a potential N. Korean nuclear strike. And people ask me why Iran should not be allowed to have nukes. It freaking stuns me frankly.
From the Washington Times:
To U.S.-S.Korea, North vows nukes
Clinton trades barbs with Pyongyang official at Asia security forum
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, signs the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation along with others at the end of the 17th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), in Hanoi, Vietnam, Friday, July 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Hoang Dinh Nam, Pool)
By Jim Gomez ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 10:32 p.m. on Friday, July 23, 2010
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, arrives to attend the opening of the ASEAN Regional Forum on Friday July 23, 2010, in Hanoi. The forum is attended by foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their counterparts from partners countries including U.S., China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. (AP Photo/HOANG DINH Nam, Pool)HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — North Korea threatened Saturday to mount a powerful nuclear response to upcoming joint U.S.-South Korean military drills, calling the exercises an “unpardonable” provocation on top of wrongly blaming Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship.
North Korea‘s powerful National Defense Commission, led by leader Kim Jong Il, warned that its troops would counter the move to hold military maneuvers involving a nuclear-armed U.S. supercarrier with a “retaliatory sacred war.”
“The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the south Korean puppet forces,” North Korea‘s official news agency in Pyongyang quoted an unnamed commission spokesman as saying, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Pyongyang routinely threatens war when South Korea and the U.S. hold joint military drills, which North Korea sees as a rehearsal for an attack on the North. The U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in the South to deter against aggression, but says it has not intention of invading the North.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young announced earlier this week in Seoul that the allies would stage a massive four-day military show of force starting Sunday to send a “clear message” to North Korea to stop its aggressive behavior.
Washington and Seoul blame Pyongyang for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in the waters off Korea‘s west coast. Forty-six sailors were killed in what Seoul calls the worst military attack on South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War. Continue Reading →
Pakistan: ISI Paid For Boat To Transport Mumbai Attackers
Interesting STRATFOR SITREP. So, back in the days of the Bay of Ton Kin (sp) this would most certainly have meant war. Of course, so would the sinking of the Chon An not long ago. It seems the whole idea of letting rogue states aquire nuclear weapons is that they can then make random harsh hits on their ideological enemies for no actual direct gain and everyone is afraid to act in retaliation as they may get nuked for it.
I hope people think this through before Iran is permitted to get the bomb.
From STRATFOR:
July 16, 2010
David Headley said Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) gave Lashkar-e-Taiba 2.5 million rupees ($53,000) to buy a boat to carry the Mumbai attackers from Karachi, The Times of India reported July 16. The terrorists then hijacked an Indian fishing boat at the Pakistani maritime boundary to reach Mumbai. Headley has identified two ISI officers who handled the attackers through a voice sample, and Indian investigators have information indicating that ISI chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha met one of the handlers, Sajjid Mir, who is currently held in a Pakistani jail. All of the information has been shared with Pakistan, an Indian source said.