The Stafford Voice

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Cybersecurity

Stuxnet Virus Could Cause Iranian ‘Chernobyl’

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It appears that the work of the Stuxnet Virus that targeted Iran is not finished. It is now being reported that the virus could cause a ‘Chernobyl’ disaster, or worse.

Associated Press Exclusive:

VIENNA (AP) — The control systems of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant have been penetrated by a computer worm unleashed last year, according to a foreign intelligence report that warns of a possible Chernobyl-like disaster once the site becomes fully operational.

Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, also has raised the specter of the 1986 reactor explosion in Ukraine, but suggested last week that the danger had passed.

The report, drawn up by a nation closely monitoring Iran’s nuclear program and obtained by The Associated Press, said such conclusions were premature and based on the “casual assessment” of Russian and Iran scientists at Bushehr.

With control systems disabled by the virus, the reactor would have the force of a “small nuclear bomb,” it said.

“The minimum possible damage would be a meltdown of the reactor,” it says. “However, external damage and massive environmental destruction could also occur … similar to the Chernobyl disaster.”

The virus, known as Stuxnet, has the ability to send centrifuges spinning out of control and temporarily crippled Iran’s uranium enrichment program. It is believed to have been the work of Israel or the United States, two nations convinced that Iran wants to turn nuclear fuel into weapons-grade uranium.     Continue reading . . .

John Wheeler Cause of Death; Blunt Force Trauma

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As many suspected, the reported cause of death for John Wheeler was by blunt force trauma. But, there are still some questions left unanswered.

AssociatedPress report:

A federal military consultant whose body was found in a landfill was assaulted and died of blunt force trauma, the state medical examiner’s office said on Friday. Officials offered no other details about the death of the consultant, John Wheeler III of New Castle, Del., whose body was found in a load of trash that was being dumped at a Wilmington landfill on Dec. 31. Officials had determined several weeks ago that Mr. Wheeler was a homicide victim, but they withheld the cause of death until toxicology tests were completed. Mr. Wheeler, 66, was seen on video surveillance cameras wandering around downtown Wilmington in a disoriented manner in the two days before his body was found.

 

Israel, US behind Stuxnet Virus

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Reports are now out about the Stuxnet virus, and it points to Israel and the United States. Tested in an Israeli nuclear facility for effectiveness, it was targeted toward Iran and slowing down their nuclear ambitions.

New York Times:

The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal.

Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own.

Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran’s ability to make its first nuclear arms.

“To check out the worm, you have to know the machines,” said an American expert on nuclear intelligence. “The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out.”

Cybersecurity Act of 2009 a Test in Presidential Power

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If it isn’t health care reform, it’s something else. Now it comes in the form of the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, or S.773.

The controversy raised with this is that it gives the President control to shut down the internet if certain emergencies arise. On pages 43-44 of the 51 page bill states:

 

Some will see this as a non-issue. Others feel that it is a total violation on their freedoms. Those who seem most bothered by it, feel the President is creating too much power.

However, the President is doing his hardest to stimulate the job market with anything and everything he can get his hands on. Yes, even with the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 he will try to create jobs. On page 41 the bill says:

One decent thing in the bill overshadowed by the extended power of the President if this passes. While the debate over health care reform is still so rampant, there is great attention that should be paid to the other bills that surface during the debate.

“Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the President, or the President’s designee, shall report to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology of the feasibility of- (1)creating a market for cybersecurity risk management, including the creation of a system of civil liability and insurance (including government reinsurance)”

 “The President – (2)may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network;”