Sunday, November 20, 2011

Iran said Sunday that it detected Duqu computer virus, which security players have debated is based on Stuxnet, believed to be aimed at sabotaging Islamic Republic's nuclear sites, according to a report.

Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran's civil defense organization, told Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) news agency that computers at all main sites at risk were being checked and Iran had developed an antivirus software to fight the virus.

"We are in the initial phase of fighting the Duqu virus," Jalali said. "The final report that says which organizations the virus has spread to and what its impacts are has not been completed yet. All the organizations and centers that could be susceptible to being contaiminated are being controlled."

Word on the Duqu computer virus surfaced in October when security vendor, Symantec, said it found a virus which code was similar to Stuxnet, the cyberweapon discovered last year. While Stuxnet was aimed at crippling industrial control systems, security players said Duqu seemed to be designed to gather data so future attacks would be easier to launch.

"Duqu is essentially the precurson to a future Stuxnet-like attack," Symantec said in a report last month, adding that instead of being designed to sabotage an industral control system, the new virus could gain remote access capabilities.

Iran also said in April that it had been targeted by a second computer virus, which it called "Stars". It was not clear if Stars and Duqu were related but Jalali had described Duqu as the third virus to hit Iran.