Israeli general claims Stuxnet attacks as one of his successes

The latest results of a Symantec study concentrating on the Stuxnet worm revealed that its developers knew what they were doing – once finished, it took only 12 hours to infect the first target.

The study also concluded that the Stuxnet attacks can be dated back to June 2009 – more than a year prior to it being first discovered by security experts – and that its intial targets were five separate organizations that have a presence in Iran and most of which have been attacked at various points through 2009 and 2010.

Last month, The New York Times ran a story about Stuxnet having been developed by the Americans and the Israelis as a part of a joint project, but it was based on the claims by confidential sources and there was only circumstantial evidence that would corroborate them.

But, it now seems that the information from these sources was correct. The Haaretz – Israel’s oldest daily newspaper – reports (via Google Translate) about the a surprising video that was played at a party organized for General Gabi Ashkenazi’s last day on the job.

The video contained references to the successes he achieved during his stint as chief of staff, and enumerated among them was the Stuxnet worm attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and and the nuclear reactor at Bushehr.

There is always the possibility that this was just a way of magnifying the General’s achievements, but it is also possible it is true. As we all know, Israel has never commented on the speculations about its involvement in the attacks.