First Stuxnet Victims Were Five Iranian Industrial Automation Companies - PCWorld

PCWorld, by Lucian Constantin

For the first time since Stuxnet was discovered in 2010, researchers have publicly named the worm’s original victims: five Iranian companies involved in industrial automation.

Stuxnet is considered to be the first known cyberweapon. It is believed to have been created by the U.S. and Israel in order to attack and slow down Iran’s nuclear program.

The worm, which has both espionage and sabotage functionality, is estimated to have destroyed up to 1,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges at a nuclear plant near the city of Natanz in Iran. It eventually spread out of control and infected hundreds of thousands of systems worldwide, leading to its discovery in June 2010.

Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab and Symantec reported Tuesday that while the nuclear facility at Natanz might have been the ultimate target of Stuxnet’s creators, the initial victims were five Iranian companies with likely ties to the country’s nuclear program. Their reports coincided with the release of “Countdown to Zero Day”, a book about Stuxnet by journalist Kim Zetter, that is partially based on interviews with researchers who investigated the threat. Read more.