After a two-year investigation into the main points surrounding the Stuxnet virus, unleashed in 2008 in opposition to the Iranian nuclear program, journalists with the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant have launched a report saying the malware value $1 billion to develop.
Besides the large price ticket, the
outlet mentioned a Dutch spy was used
to launch the
Stuxnet virus
into the Iranian nuclear infrastructure. The Dutch authorities instructed Volkskrant that the federal government understood the then-36-year-old Erik van Sabben was working to sabotage the Iranian nuclear undertaking, nevertheless there was no information of a cyber weapon of Stuxnet’s consequence getting used as a part of the proceedings.
The report detailed that Van Stabben, working as an Iranian engineer, accessed an underground nuclear facility within the metropolis of Natanz and put in the Stuxnet virus, finally damaging nuclear centrifuges and setting again the hassle by “a number of years,” it mentioned. The malware was probably hidden in a water pump he put in, the report concluded.
Van Stabben died simply two weeks later in a motorbike accident in Dubai, the report added. It stays unclear whether or not he was conscious of his function in deploying Stuxnet. No foul play was suspected in Van Stabben’s dying.