TEHRAN, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said Wednesday that the enemy's efforts to infect Iranian nuclear systems with a computer virus have failed, the local satellite Press TV reported.
"We began taking computer security and safety measures since last year and over the past two months these safety measures have been intensified. Fortunately, we succeeded in preventing the enemy from achieving its objectives," Salehi was quoted as saying.
All efforts to infect Iranian computers had failed as the country’s experts were capable in countering all threats, he said.
The Iranian nuclear chief reiterated that the country has the ability to counter "software war," he added.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast denied reports that a cyber worm had damaged computer systems at the country’s nuclear power plant.
The reports were part of the "soft war" and a "propaganda stratagem" against Iran, Mehmanparast told reporters in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
Mahmoud Jafari, an Iranian nuclear official, told the official IRNA News agency on Sunday that Stuxnet computer worm had hit the personal computers of the staff at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
"The virus has not caused any damage to major systems of Bushehr nuclear plant,” Jafari was quoted by IRNA as saying.
The Islamic Republic said that the computer worm has infected 30,000 IP addresses in Iran recently.
Stuxnet is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems. It is specifically written to attack SCADA systems which are used to control and monitor industrial processes.
