Iran threatens legal action after second virus attack

Iranian military officials have described the latest virus attack to hit central systems as an "act of war".

The country last year suffered damage to its nuclear programme following the infamous Stuxnet virus that is widely believed to have been a state-sponsored operation aimed at destabilising Iran's nuclear capabilities.

The newly discovered “Stars” virus was targeting specific government systems, according to officials, but they have not detailed whether the networks were military or civilian.

“Certain characteristics about the Stars worm have been identified, including that it is compatible with the (targeted) system and it is likely to be mistaken for executable files of the government,” Iran's senior cyber defence official, Gholam-Reza Jalali, told the local Mehr News agency.

The official went on to issue a warning to the country's network operators to be on the alert for further attacks related to the worm, which could include more dangerous variants.

“Although we have dealt with Stuxnet, it doesn't mean that the threat has been completely eliminated, since worms have specific life cycles and can continue their activities in other forms,” Jalali said.

“The country should prepare itself to tackle future worms, as they could be more dangerous than the first ones,” he said.

The official went on to say the country might seek redress under international law for the attacks, which Iran has blamed on US and Israeli operations against the country.

“The Foreign Ministry might not have paid due attention to pursuing this issue legally,” he said. “But it seems that our diplomatic apparatus should pay attention to legally pursuing cyber attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran more than before. Many countries regard any cyber attack as an official (act of) war.”

This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk