West's cyber attack on Iran's nuclear facilities helps Iran's counter-measure developments: official

A senior Iranian nuclear official said that West's cyber attack against Iran's nuclear facilities raised the country's awareness to embark on a new scientific field to ward off further acts of sabotage, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) owes gratitude to the United States and Israel for cyber attacks on Iran's nuclear industry, Head of the AEOI Ali Akbar Salehi said, adding that the country was not as vigilant as it is now before the Stuxnet worms attacked its facilities.

The cyber attack helped Iran enter into a new field of science for testing various equipment to detect any industrial sabotage, Salehi told Tasnim.

In September 2010, the Islamic republic said that Stuxnet computer worm infected 30,000 IP addresses in Iran but Iranian Foreign Ministry denied reports that a cyber worm had damaged computer systems at the country's nuclear power plant.

Stuxnet is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems. It is specifically written to attack SCADA systems which are used to control and monitor industrial processes.

Iran has accused the United States and Israel of being behind the attack.

The AEOI is pursuing legal action against perpetrators of the cyber attack on the country's nuclear establishments, Salehi said. Endit