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The Military

Iran Says It Has Detected Second Cyber Attack 91

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stay-off-my-lawn dept.
fysdt writes "Iran has been targeted by a second computer virus in a 'cyber war' waged by its enemies, its commander of civil defense said on Monday. Gholamreza Jalali told the semi-official Mehr news agency that the new virus, called 'Stars,' was being investigated by experts."
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Iran Says It Has Detected Second Cyber Attack More

Iran Says It Has Detected Second Cyber Attack

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  • makes sense (Score:3, Funny)

    by neo8750 ( 566137 ) <zepski&zepski,net> on Monday April 25, 2011 @08:53AM (#35928792) Homepage
    This makes sense that they would notice such a thing in iran around this time. If i did the math right it should be about 6 pm which is around the start of twilight/dusk meaning...STARS are just appearing in the sky and thus able to spotted during their attacks. I feel as the night presses on the attacks will only get stronger. We have two choices to fight back against these attacks. Either put up more streetlights and fight with light pollution or we can just hold our ground till sunrise which will cause this enemy to retreat in to the oblivion that is background light. Either way we must stand up and fight against these tiny attackers.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Moryath ( 553296 )

      Didn't you know? Stars are the ancient enemy of Al-Ilah the Moon Deity, the forces of the Djinn, who fight against the Holy Angels and seek to corrupt humans.

      • Before we jump too deep in to theology, let's throw out a bit of political conspiracy. Isn't "cyber-war" the perfect boogyman? Sure - Communists and CIA mechanizations have been traditional levers to move a population's fears in the past. But eventually, that sort of thing has to manifest somewhere; who is a Communist or CIA conspirator? But cyber attack? That's in a fantasy world. Or at least - a dark, mystical realm of black boxes that the population may be familiar with but rarely understand. One

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) *

          > Of course, such attacks are always foiled by brave patriots. And thus no damage
          > is ever produced - no need for inconvenient proof.

          And you forget one more use. The ever ready excuse. An aging poorly maintained facility goes foom! Accept blame or play the cyber card. Imagine you are Imanutjob in Iran. Your Russian designed and built of crap brought in through an international blockade reactor goes foom! and radiates a million people. Accept blame or claim the Joooossss! and the Great Satan sabot

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gtall ( 79522 )

          I hear you, the cyber attacks on Georgia and Estonia never happened....all a conspiracy by the CIA...they are behind everything...even the things of which they are in front.

          • I hear you, the cyber attacks on Georgia and Estonia never happened....all a conspiracy by the CIA...they are behind everything...even the things of which they are in front.

            Of course - you only see the CIA agents you're supposed to see.

            On a more serious note - that's the fun thing about this environment (I suppose it applies to espionage in general - forest of mirrors and all that). There really ARE shenanigans going on. But the exact nature and motivations aren't always clear. And because of this ambiguity and past history, it becomes very easy to either see enemies in the shadows or claim that there are enemies as a cynical fiction intended to motivate others.

            I say t

            • There has been CIA participation in a lot of questionable enterprises over the years and they may occassionally do their job which is to protect US foreign interests but they usually cause more problems than they fix. I always find it amusing when people talk about how powerful the CIA or the US is with Isreal running the entire show behind the scenes. If Israel or the US was that powerful how come they still end up having all these problems. Especially Israel, if they were as powerful as people say wouldn'

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by qfman ( 1983486 )
          My how quickly we forgot stuxnet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet [wikipedia.org]
          • Exactly. Whenever someone begins to doubt the boogyman, invoke Stuxnet.
          • deskpane build 250 hashstamp appended
            By hashstamp, I mean that you post the hash of whatever, and the post is datestamped and can't be edited or deleted, although it would be nice to have a "flag", indicating that someone has paid X dollars to claim that their password was stolen and so the hashstamp is possibly invalid, or even that such a challenge has been validated.
            To automate this, a filename such as e.g. deskPane_w.....zip MUST begin with a dot-com name fby underscore. A hashstamp-server might send

  • Poor Article (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Not a very good article, most of it is a rehash of Stuxnet. Only Useful Information:

    "Fortunately, our young experts have been able to discover this virus and the Stars virus is now in the laboratory for more investigations," Jalali was quoted as saying. He did not specify the target of Stars or its intended impact. "The particular characteristics of the Stars virus have been discovered," Jalali said. "The virus is congruous and harmonious with the (computer) system and in the initial phase it does minor damage and might be mistaken for some executive files of government organisations."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by katz ( 36161 )

      I bet they're running scared now, because the fact of the matter is that they can never again be certain that a worm is not operating surreptitiously on their systems. So what else do we expect them to say?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        What are their options?
        Build their own OS? Expensive, needs time and no fun for the top developers.
        Import a one task "black box" OS from Europe/Asia for sub sets of the production line? Expose their funding/procurement networks as the expensive new OS is sold and then sabotaged again?
        Do the best with Windows but finally understand it should have never been trusted?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by katz ( 36161 )

          I agree with you. This is what I had meant to convey.. perhaps these attacks are already too entrenched in their systems for them to continue with any modicum of confidence.

          • General System Order 1) - Fly someone to France and then to Detroit. Have them download the Linux flavor of your choice and fly back to Iran. Install your Linux flavor of your choice on clean hardware with resin filled USB ports, locked cases, and a network with no internet connection. Buy a DSL line and connect to a single terminal for all your goat porn needs.

            Anyway, I'm pretty sure Oppenheimer didn't need Linux to make yellow cake.

            Seriously, this is just ridiculous. The real problem isn't that they a

    • I think they just installed a new Service Pack and the results were just as devestating as Stutnex.
  • The information provided in the Reuters article is total crap, and some propagandist thinks that the name "Stars" is subtle. Good thing you have all those young experts, Gholamreza Jalali! Otherwise some might mistake the Stars virus (which does minor damage) for some executive files of government organisations! Gee, the Israelis and Americans sure are cyber-stupid to try the same cyber-thing twice on you guys! You're so clever!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Well it wasn't said if it is a RED STAR or STAR and stripes (RAID virus) so commies are not out of the question yet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) *

      > Gee, the Israelis and Americans sure are cyber-stupid to try the same
      > cyber-thing twice on you guys!

      Dunno, what else we got? Even the crazed cowboy warmonger Bush didn't have the stones to pull the trigger on a raid on Iran's nuke program and with President Zero even a threat of physical force[1] isn't credible. And with the current state of near hostilities between Zero's minions and Israel these days the hope of them riding in on a white jet and solving the problem for the world isn't that high

      • Support any foe, oppose any friend seems to be the current administration's motto. Perhaps they misheard JFK or something... or perhaps they are just on the other f*ck*ng side.

        You mean how the Bush family has intentionally, deliberately, knowingly, and willfully done business with both the Nazis (Prescott Bush ran a corporation whose sole purpose was to funnel funds to the S.S., the "business end" of the Nazi Party) and with the Bin Ladens for years and years?

        Your mistake is believing that Obama and Bush are not on the same team. Understanding politics in America? You fail it.

  • Doubtful (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Monday April 25, 2011 @08:58AM (#35928826)
    Ahmadinejad is just upset the Playstation Network is still down.
  • Was that your server I attacked? I'm sorry.

    I thought it was the Dancing with the Stars host.

    (Must remember not to drink and hack.)

  • Hey, Iran, maybe you shouldn't be replying to those Nigerian scam emails instead of blaming it on your enemies. Just sayin'.

  • ... taken down.

    I'm not a hacker by inclination (or ability!) and I normally look dimly upon vigilantees who take it upon themselves to bring about "justice". But in this case I'm happy to see the Iranian nuclear program stalled through almost any means possible; to imagine their president Ahmadinejad having a nuke is almost as bad as imaging the Taliban/Al Qaeda having one! I mean, really who would benefit from Iran getting a bomb? I'm not sure even the Iranians (ultimately) would!

    If only the dear leader

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      For myself, I'm waiting until the Madhi returns. Here's my scenario:

      The trumpets blare, the clouds of heaven part, the Madhi in all her beauty majestically sweeps down to Earth. The Righteous Islamics are in a deep funk since the Madhi was rumored to be male. She assures them in a thunderous voice that indeed She is the Madhi, throws a few lightning bolts for effect.

      After a bit of meet and greet, She looks at her watch and declares that time is money and She's a bit busy this week. The Righteous Islamics ar

  • Good. (Score:3)

    by Urkki ( 668283 ) on Monday April 25, 2011 @09:29AM (#35929056)

    Good.

    I left it to the excerice for the reader to decide what is good:

    A. that at least some kind of war is being fought on Iran

    B. that it's viruses instead of bombs that are being delivered to Iran

    C. that Iran discovered the virus before it did damage

    D. that Iran is fighting it's own propaganda war by these false claims

    E. your own choice, explain below

    • I'll go with you this one. Mod the parent up. Huh, perhaps if Iran used OpenBSD as its firewall, it would have been safe - LOL!
  • I knew that Iran was in league with some shady characters, but the Umbrella Corporation? What the hell are they thinking?!
    I, for one, am glad that STARS is already on the scene, protecting us from Wesker and Ahmadinejad's zombie outbreak.

  • I could imagine just now a lot of very nationalistic teenagers stuiding software technologies with fruction. To make any teenager into a hacker, you only need to put him a goal. A good goal create good hackers. Defending your country seems a rather awesome goal, so this will create better IT hackers in Iran. I don't know what is the short term goal, but the long term result will be making Iran much stronger in cyberwars thingies.
    On the other hand, hackers are a double edge sword...

  • As in, to keep from having to explain his holiness why they are having such a hard time with peaceful nuclear work it is useful to have a bogeyman. An Israeli / American bogeyman.

    Figure if they run out of viruses then they can start on physical sabotage.

  • Iran has been at war with Israel since the fall of the Shah. It supplies, arms, trains and to some degree directs Israel's most effective enemy Hamas/Hezbollah. A targeted electronic weapon which slows down the progress of the Persian nuclear program is mild compared to Jerusalem's other alternatives.
  • Seems like we here in the US would suffer a lot more than Iran from cyber-terrorism.. While it may feel good today to digitally attack them, I fear that the eventual reprisals might be much worse than what we are simply stalling.
    • Well, yes and no. I don't think the US did it. And, given that Iran is prone to hyperbole and sabre rattling, there is cause for some concern.
  • Keep hitting them. We need to stop the nukes long enough for sanctions to take out their government. As it is, common ppl in Iran are getting VERY irate with their government since they are spending more on helping Venezuela, AQ, etc than they are on improving their local economy. With oil sales in the crapper, Iran's tanks are FULL. And Iraq is replacing all of the Iranian oil. Of course, it is highly likely that we will see loads of attacks on Iraq and possible saudi arabian oil fields in an attempt to s

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cdrguru ( 88047 )

      You seem to think that the government of Iran has a goal of helping the people living there. From what I understand the government of Iran is there to have power and to control a country. The fact that there are other people living in that space is relatively irrelevant.

      This is the principal danger in an Iranian nuclear arsenal. MAD doesn't work when you don't take an interest in the civilian population. Clearly from the last round of elections there are a lot of people the Iranian leadership wishes woul

  • to be a bunch of pro-American hypocrites. If China, Russia, or Iran were doing this to the Americans, you guys would be advocating wiping them off the face of the earth. It's like a sports match. You get all sanctimonious and angry when the other team does it, but when your team does the same thing, it's all good and fine and justified because the other side is a bunch of evil commies, Islamists, or whatever boogeyman you have this year.

  • great work...keep the viruses coming. Let the whole world join together to overwhelm Iran with cyber attacks. If we can avoid a conventional war through this action...it's the only responsible thing to do.

  • As a civilian, standing in the line of fire, and considering it was Iranian hackers who supposedly pulled off the SSL cert hack last month, I'm not looking forward to the escalation of this little war.

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