Cyber attack on key N-facility in Mysore?

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.asianage.com/india/cyber-attack-key-n-facility-mysore-684

By S. Raghotham
The Asian Age
Nov 02, 2011

India's lone uranium enrichment facility at Rattehalli, near Mysore, may 
become the target of the gravest act of cyberwar against India to date, 
attacking no less than its strategic nuclear programme, sources in the 
Indian hacker/cyberwarfare community warned.

The sources said computers at the Rattehalli facility, euphemistically 
called Rare Materials Plant (RMP), were possibly infected by the deadly 
Stuxnet, or a Stuxnet-derived malware, as a precursor to an attack to 
destroy thousands of centrifuges installed there.

Such an attack on Iran's Natanz enrichment plant last year destroyed 
over 1,000 centrifuges and set its alleged nuclear bomb programme back 
at least 12-18 months. The RMP is critical for India's nuclear submarine 
programme. Operating close to an estimated 10,000 centrifuges, RMP 
produces highly enriched uranium for the 90 MW reactor that will power 
India's first nuclear submarine Arihant, now undergoing sea trials, 
which is expected to be commissioned by 2016. Enriched uranium is also 
necessary for India’s boosted-fission and thermonuclear bomb programmes.

One source in the rarefied cyberwarrior community said a hostile foreign 
intelligence agency or rogue agents within it had infected RMP's 
islanded computers -- which run the plant's operations and are not 
connected to the Internet or any other network.

[...]

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