How did the Stuxnet virus enter the Natanz nuclear facility?

The Natanz nuclear facility was highly secure and not connected to the internet. The Stuxnet virus was transmitted to the Natanz nuclear facility's software system via a USB flash drive. The question is: how was this possible?

How did Mossad and the CIA manage to install the Stuxnet virus in the software system of the Natanz nuclear facility? This question has occupied the minds of experts for years. On September 2, the Yahoo News website published a detailed report, providing new details about how the Natanz nuclear facility system was infected with the aforementioned virus.

This comprehensive report is the product of a collaboration between two journalists and experts. Kim Setter is a journalist and author of “Countdown to Day Zero: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Warfare Weapon.”

The second author of the report is Huyb Moderkolk, who works for the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant and has published several articles about the Dutch intelligence agency.

Installing a dangerous virus

The authors of this article wrote about Stuxnet that this virus was the first virus designed and produced in the field of espionage and sabotage in nuclear facilities. This virus first entered the software system of the Natanz nuclear facility in 2007. Shortly before that, Iran had begun installing centrifuges in Natanz.

The authors of the report point to the role of the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD. According to the report, Dutch intelligence agents had been working with the CIA and Mossad on this issue since 2004. It is said that meetings between intelligence agents from the three countries took place in The Hague.

In addition, it has been said that Germany, France, and Britain also cooperated in providing the CIA and Mossad with the necessary information to produce this virus. Among them, Siemens provided these organizations with technical information about this centrifuge.

This is despite the fact that none of the countries mentioned have so far denied the news about their participation in the production and installation of this virus or have remained silent about such reports.

It is said that the Dutch intelligence agency managed to contact an Iranian engineer. This person collaborated with the Dutch intelligence agency in two stages in producing and installing this virus, and through that with the Mossad and the CIA.

This Iranian engineer was responsible for collecting the necessary information for the Mossad and the CIA until 2007, and after that, he was responsible for transmitting the virus via a USB flash drive.

Iranian agent of the Dutch intelligence agency

The authors of the aforementioned report consider the role of this Iranian engineer to be crucial in gathering information and then in transmitting and installing the virus.

The Natanz nuclear facility has been subject to very high levels of security control and surveillance. Because this system was not connected to the global Internet, there was no possibility of hacking into its software from the outside. Therefore, the only possible way was to have direct access to the devices of this facility.

The operation to collect and install the Stuxnet virus was called the “Olympic Games.” The initial goal of this operation was to sabotage the system of this nuclear facility. The CIA and Mossad intended to sabotage this facility to delay the installation of centrifuges and pave the way for a nuclear agreement with Iran.

The sabotage took place in two stages. In the first stage, the operation of the gas transmission pipes to the centrifuges was disrupted through the operation of Stuxnet, and in the second stage, the rotation speed and rotation of the centrifuges were reduced, thereby damaging the system.

Organizations participating in the "Olympic Games" operation

According to the information published in this report, Operation "Olympic Games" was a joint operation between the US and Israeli intelligence agencies.

The US National Security Agency (NSA), the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Israeli Intelligence Agency (Mossad), the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and the Israeli SIGINT (an organization similar to the US National Security Agency) were present and cooperated in this operation.

But what has received less attention so far has been the role of the Dutch intelligence agency. The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD, together with British intelligence, provided Western intelligence agencies with information about the main companies involved in the Iranian and Libyan nuclear programs. The information was provided to Iran and Libya through Abdul Qadir Khan, a Pakistani nuclear physicist.

The article published on Yahoo News also mentions the cyber capabilities of the Dutch intelligence agency.

How Operation "Olympic Games" Was Formed

The story goes back to the last days of 2004. At that time, a Mossad agent and a CIA agent contacted the Dutch intelligence representative in The Hague and asked for help. At that time, there was no mention of the production of a digital weapon, and the stated purpose of this cooperation was to gather information about Iran's nuclear activities.

The Dutch intelligence agency had informed the CIA and Mossad agents that it had managed to contact someone in Iran. Iran had begun uranium enrichment in February 2006. However, uranium enrichment at the Natanz facility officially began in February 2007.

Iran had begun enriching uranium and installing and using centrifuges at a time when espionage and sabotage had long been afoot in the Natanz facility system.

The report of the first experimental sabotage of centrifuges was presented to US President George W. Bush in 2006. After seeing the success of the operation, he issued an order to continue it.

By May 2007, Iran had installed 1,700 centrifuges at Natanz. The number of centrifuges was scheduled to double by the summer of that year. The arrival of the Dutch intelligence agent at Natanz occurred before the summer of 2007.

In 2009 and 2010, the CIA and Mossad decided to make changes to the Stuxnet virus. These changes would disrupt the centrifuges and could damage the facility. The flash drive carrying the virus would be transferred and reinstalled into the facility's software system.

In this way, Mossad and the CIA, with the help of the Dutch intelligence agency's communications, succeeded in infecting the software system of the Natanz nuclear facility through this Iranian engineer.

Source: DW