Tehran Has Developed a Firewall to Counter Stuxnet Virus - Iranian Minister

Last November, Tehran accused US and Israeli hackers of creating a new version of the Stuxnet virus in an attempt to damage Iran's communication infrastructure, adding that the attack had been thwarted.

On Thursday, Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi told the official IRNA news agency that a new programme would prevent further hacker attacks from the malware that targeted the defence facilities of the country.

"Iran's University scientists have developed a firewall for industrial automation systems to neutralise industrial sabotage such as that caused by Stuxnet in power networks, and it was successfully tested", he said.

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According to Tehran, back in June 2009 the bug targeted nuclear centrifuges at Iran's Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility, causing serious damage to some of them, which allegedly led to a 30 per cent drop in their operational capacity.

Various reports suggested that the Stuxnet virus had been developed by US and Israeli intelligence services to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme. No country, however, has taken responsibility, neither for creating the virus nor for carrying out the attack.