Iran has reportedly confirmed that the Stuxnet worm hit centrifuges used to refine uranium in the country The Stuxnet worm hit centrifuges used to enrich uranium at Iran’s nuclear sites, the Reuters news agency quoted Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Monday.According to the report, Ahmadinejad said that enemies of Iran “succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with the software they had installed in electronic parts,” speaking in a news conference. “They did a bad thing. Fortunately our experts discovered that and today they are not able (to do that) anymore,” he added.MORE ABOUT STUXNET10/5/2010 Iran blames Stuxnet worm on Western plot How to build an industrial cyber-sabotage operation: A look at Stuxnet 9/21/2010 Stuxnet industrial worm written a year ago 9/14/2010 Siemens: Stuxnet worm hit industrial systems The comments apparently provide confirmation that Iran’s nuclear program was indeed the target of the most talked-about computer worm of the year. Discovered in July, Stuxnet is the first worm designed to attack industrial systems such as power plants or nuclear reactors. Iran had previously confirmed that the worm affected systems in the country, including non-critical systems at a nuclear reactor. But this is the first time it has said that Stuxnet also affected centrifuges. Security researchers now believe that Stuxnet had at least two targets: centrifuges such as the ones Ahmadinejad referred to on Monday, and another type of industrial system targeted with what’s known as the worm’s 417 attack code. Stuxnet researcher Ralph Langner believes that this second target may have been a turbine at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor.Stuxnet is unusual in that it seeks out very specific industrial systems and then tries to disrupt their operations. With Ahmadinejad’s comments, we now know what one of those targets was, said Eric Byres, chief technology officer with Byres Security. “We’ve got a pretty small set of potential victims, and one of the victims is sticking up their hand to say, ‘Yeah we got hit.'”The worm is designed to slow down and then speed up centrifuges, either ruining the uranium being refined or stressing the devices so much that they break, Byres said.“The thing we don’t know right now is what the heck was the second victim,” he added.Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert’s e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com Related content news Multibillion-dollar cybersecurity training market fails to fix the supply-demand imbalance Despite money pouring into programs around the world, training organizations have not managed to ensure employment for professionals, while entry-level professionals are finding it hard to land a job By Samira Sarraf Oct 02, 2023 6 mins CSO and CISO CSO and CISO CSO and CISO news Royal family’s website suffers Russia-linked cyberattack Pro-Russian hacker group KillNet took responsibility for the attack days after King Charles condemned the invasion of Ukraine. By Michael Hill Oct 02, 2023 2 mins DDoS Cyberattacks feature 10 things you should know about navigating the dark web A lot can be found in the shadows of the internet from sensitive stolen data to attack tools for sale, the dark web is a trove of risks for enterprises. Here are a few things to know and navigate safely. By Rosalyn Page Oct 02, 2023 13 mins Cybercrime Security news ShadowSyndicate Cybercrime gang has used 7 ransomware families over the past year Researchers from Group-IB believe it's likely the group is an independent affiliate working for multiple ransomware-as-a-service operations By Lucian Constantin Oct 02, 2023 4 mins Hacker Groups Ransomware Cybercrime Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe