Report: Iranian 'Mole' Carried Stuxnet to Iranian Nuclear Facility

An engineer recruited by the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD helped bring to Iran's Natanz nuclear facility the malware via USB that ultimately infected systems there and sabotaged centrifuges, according to an exclusive report from Yahoo News.

One of the key missing puzzle pieces to the Stuxnet saga — how the malware got into Iran's secured Natanz facility — finally has been uncovered: An Iranian engineer recruited by AIVD, the Dutch intelligence agency, installed the malware weapon onto systems in the uranium-enrichment plant, Yahoo News reported this week in an exclusive.

According to the report, the "mole" posed as a mechanic performing services at Natanz under a phony cover company. Sources told Yahoo News that the engineer was recruited by AIVD on behalf of the CIA and Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. The mole also provided intelligence that that assisted Stuxnet developers targeting the plants' systems.

"[T]he Dutch mole was the most important way of getting the virus into Natanz," one of the sources reportedly said.

The engineer either installed Stuxnet via the USB drive or infected another engineer's system to unknowingly infect them while programming the control systems, according to the report.

Read more here.

Dark Reading's Quick Hits delivers a brief synopsis and summary of the significance of breaking news events. For more information from the original source of the news item, please follow the link provided in this article. View Full Bio

Recommended Reading: