The United States tried and failed to bring down North Korea's nuclear weapons program using a version of the Stuxnet computer virus, which was also used to sabotage Iran's nuclear program at the same time, according to a report from Reuters.
The National Security Agency-led campaign was launched in tandem with the Stuxnet attack that sabotaged Iran's nuclear program in 2009 and 2010, but agents were unable to access the core machines that ran North Korea's nuclear weapons program, anonymous U.S. intelligence sources told Reuters.
The virus was programed to activate upon encountering Korean-language settings on an infected machine, and would have caused the centrifuges necessary to enrich uranium to destroy themselves by spinning out of control. Pyongyang has some of the most isolated communications in the world, with open Internet reportedly only available to a tiny elite, making it impossible for the NSA to access the systems and deliver the virus.
North Korea's strict limitations on the Internet as well as travel make it one of the few countries in the world "who can race out and do damage with relative impunity," since it's so difficult to retaliate in cyberspace, according to NSA Director Keith Alexander, reports Reuters.
Aside from Iran, North Korea is now the only other country known to have been offensively targeted by a U.S. cyber espionage campaign with the intent to destroy equipment, though many campaigns have been carried out and remain secret, according to Reuters. Because many Iranians surfed the Internet and had interactions with companies from around the world, the NSA was able to compromise their systems much easier.
Researchers at Kaspersky Labs found that Stuxnet was introduced into Iranian nuclear facilities through two equipment suppliers, Foolad Technical Engineering Co. and Behpajoah Co. Elec & Comp Engineering, who were targeted around June 2009.
Stuxnet's existence was first discovered in in June 2010 and then later confirmed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who alleged that the U.S. and Israel were behind the attacks, though neither government admits responsibility.
