There’s a worm in my myrtle

October 1, 2010 by Brian Blum · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Politics, Technology

Nuclear power plant in Iran

Did Israel create the Stuxnet virus that has reportedly infected a significant number of computers related to Iran’s nuclear program and may be behind a significant drop in the country’s ability to produce the centrifuges needed to enrich uranium at the main Natanz plant? The security community is abuzz with speculation.

The virus – known more specifically as “malware” – apparently targets a specific type of industrial control computer made by the manufacturer Siemens that is used to manage oil pipelines, electrical power grids and many types of nuclear power plants, according to a report in The New York Times.

The virus is so sophisticated that it’s widely agreed it couldn’t be the creation of a rogue hacker working alone in a basement but must be a government-sponsored computer-coding endeavor.

Israel has long been known to be engaged in cyber warfare – the intelligence division’s 8200 unit is the largest in the IDF. The thinking is that, rather than rely solely on threats to bomb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities, infecting the computer systems that run those plants might be just as effective.

But is Israel really behind the bug? The latest evidence seems to indicate so…or not. The New York Times is reporting that a file name in the virus is called “Myrtus” which in Hebrew is “Hadass.” The original name of Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, was “Hadassah.” Tellingly, Haman’s plot against the Jews took place in Persia – or modern-day Iran.

But the insertion of “Myrtus” into the malware might also be disinformation – a red herring – added into the code by a particularly literary programmer to point at Israel when the real creator resides elsewhere.

Many Israelis – myself included – would like to believe Stuxnet is a blue and white made-in-Israel product. Especially this week, with the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again abusing the podium at the annual United Nations General Assembly, repeating his distorted insinuations and against the Jewish State and the West in general – a sophisticated means of keeping Israel safe that doesn’t involve an outright military attack would be a welcome and fresh approach – and one that would make us proud of our ingenuity and prowess.

There’s an even more recent parallel with Myrtus. We just finished the Sukkot holiday when Jews ritually shake the “four species.” One of the shakees is myrtle (or “hadass”). Did the creators of the code intend to digitally “shake things up” in Iran?

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