Computer Virus Delayed Iran's Nuclear Program

The Stuxnet virus that infected Iranian nuclear facilities set the country’s nuclear program back two years, according to a German computer consultant, and may still be causing problems. “This was nearly as effective as a military strike, but even better since there are no fatalities and no full-blown war,” said the consultant, one of the first to analyze the code. To get back on track, Iran will have to throw out computers infected with the virus and rebuild the centrifuges that the virus caused to spin out of control. Iran is apparently still having trouble getting the worm under control, as a security expert who runs a Stuxnet-related site reported a large amount of traffic from Iran in recent weeks. With 15,000 lines of code, the virus is too complex to have been done by a hacker, and widespread speculation names Israel as the developer, possibly with help from other nations.