TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian military official revealed Monday that the country has been attacked by a new computer virus apparently aimed at nuclear facilities, an acknowledgment that seemed to suggest a broader campaign by foreign saboteurs to undermine Iran’s atomic-energy program.
The new computer worm has been dubbed “Stars” by the Iranians and described as an “espionage virus,” although few details were made public. The military also confirmed continuing problems with an earlier virus, “Stuxnet,” which began wreaking havoc on Iran’s main uranium-enrichment facility in 2009.
“The Stars virus has been presented to the laboratory but is still being investigated,” said Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads the Passive Defense Organization, which counters sabotage.
A report by the group said the new virus mimics government computer files and is difficult to destroy in its early stages.
“No definite and final conclusions have been reached,” Jalali said in a report posted Monday on his organization’s website, paydarymelli.ir.
The statement follows recent official acknowledgments of the damage wrought by Stuxnet, which infected several nuclear facilities and industrial sites and is believed to have destroyed more than a tenth of the centrifuges Iran uses to make enriched uranium.
A military official this month blamed U.S. and Israeli spy agencies for planting the computer worm. Officials in both countries have declined to comment on either of the reported cyber attacks. A U.S. official familiar with clandestine operations said the Iranian reports are being monitored.
