Iran: New Stuxnet attack on power plant foiled

TEHRAN, Iran An Iranian semi-official news agency reported that there has been another cyberattack by the sophisticated computer worm Stuxnet, this time on the industries in the country's south.

Tuesday's report by ISNA quotes provincial civil defense chief Ali Akbar Akhavan as saying the virus targeted a power plant and some other industries in Hormozgan province in recent months.

Akhavan says Iranian computer experts were able to "successfully stop" the worm.

Iran has repeatedly claimed defusing cyber worms and malware, including Stuxnet and Flame viruses that targeted the vital oil sector, which provides 80 percent of the country's foreign revenue.

Tehran has said both worms are part of a secret U.S.-Israeli program that seeks to destabilize Iran's nuclear program.

The West suspects Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran denies.

In a "60 Minutes" broadcast in March, correspondent Steve Kroft reported that Stuxnet was first detected and isolated by a tiny company in Belarus after one of its clients in Iran complained about a software glitch in June of 2010. Within a month, a copy of the computer bug was being analyzed within a tight knit community of computer security experts, and it appeared to be the first salvo in a new era of warfare.

U.S. involvement in the virus has been widely speculated.