Whether or not the Stuxnet worm attacking Iranian sites originated in Israel, the US, or somewhere else, expect the Revolutionary Guards to retaliate — in cyber space.
Newsweek spotlights Iran's "Cyber Army":
After a number of government Web sites were hacked during the disputed 2009 presidential election—presumably by supporters of the opposition—Tehran started to fight back by forming the Iranian Cyber Army, a group linked to the Revolutionary Guards. Last year, these pro-government hackers briefly took down Twitter, and they intend to expand their targets: a Guard spokesman has said that the goal of the Cyber Army is to “conquer virtual space.”
As part of that effort, 120 members of the Basij, a youth militia, were recently sent to Mashad for training in “writing weblogs, social networking, psychological operations, protection from Internet spying, mobile phones and their capabilities, Basij cybercenters and videogames that would allow penetration into virtual space.” Regardless of who created Stuxnet, it’s clear that Iran intends to fire its own shots in the cyberwar.
Two years ago, I interviewed Gadi Evron, one of Israel's top computer security experts. He told me that we'll never be able to definitively prove that a state was behind cyber attacks. But that probably won't stop the Iranians from striking back. The deniability level's too good.
Unless the Iranians produce security footage of mysterious people with wigs, tennis rackets and false mustaches walking into Bushehr . . .
