Worm disabled Iran’s nuclear centrifuges via their frequency controllers

New York Times : Eric Chien, Nicolas Falliere, and Liam Murchu of Symantec, the world’s largest maker of computer security software, have figured out how the Stuxnet worm was able to disable the centrifuges that enrich uranium for Iran’s nuclear program. According to the Symantec analysis, Stuxnet targeted frequency controllers, the devices that govern how fast the centrifuges spin. Stuxnet instructed the controllers to speed up and slow down erratically, rendering the centrifuges useless. As the New York Times‘s William Broad and David Sanger report, Stuxnet’s paternity remains in doubt, although Israel is the prime suspect.