The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says reports that the Stuxnet malware has inflicted serious damage on Iran's first nuclear power plant are aimed at causing concerns about Tehran's nuclear program.
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“Many of these discussions in the world's media and public opinion about the Stuxnet virus are aimed at creating concerns among the Iranians and the region as well as delaying the operation of the plant,” AEOI Deputy Head Mohammad Ahmadian told ISNA on Friday.
“Therefore, it is needed that experts investigate how true these discussions are so that required legal action is taken,” he went on to say.
He said that if any incident that would harm the operation of the plant takes place, the consequences would more have an impact on Russians whose reputation, as an actor interested in cooperating in nuclear power plant projects, would be tarnished.
In July 2010, media claimed that the Stuxnet, a computer worm that is viewed as potentially the most dangerous piece of computer malware discovered, has targeted industrial computers around the globe, with Iran being the main target of the attack.
They said the country's Bushehr power plant was at the center of the cyber attack.
Iranian officials, however, have dismissed such claims, saying that the Stuxnet was detected early by Iranian experts and thus caused no damage to the country's industrial sites.
“The Stuxnet virus has had no negative impact on the progressive activities of the Bushehr nuclear plant,” AEOI spokesman Hamid Khadem Qa'emi said last month.
“As the head of the Atomic Energy Organization has reiterated, the organization's security experts had vigilantly identified the virus about one and a half years ago and required precautions were rendered at the time to block the virus,” he added.
Yulia Amano, Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said this week that Iran and Russia “are giving enough attention to prevent possible accidents caused by cyber attacks.”
Last month, Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom also rejected media reports that the virus has impacted Iran's nuclear power plant.
"There are no viruses in the power plant's computer network, especially in units responsible for security, because this network is totally autonomous and isolated from external sources," Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said on Monday.
The spokesperson further stressed that the virus could not break into the automatic control system of the plant and endanger the reactor control.
