How Stuxnet worm took out key Iranian nuclear facility in 2010
The underground Iranian atomic facility blacked out by a possible devastating cyberattack from Israel is no stranger to attacks from the West and its allies.
Condemned a "terrorist action" by an Iranian official, there are suspicions Israel's spy agency Mossad hit Natanz with a cyberattack, just one day after Iran said it was launching more than 150 new uranium enrichment centrifuges at the key facility.
Natanz has been targeted by sabotage in the past.
Natanz (pictured in 2007) was also the target of the Stuxnet cyberattack in 2010, which security experts believe was carried out by Israel and the US. Getty
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Most famously, the Stuxnet computer virus in 2010, widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation, destroyed Iranian centrifuges at Natanz.
The audacious attack came amid an earlier period of Western fears about Tehran's nuclear program.
Stuxnet, a worm virus, took out thousands of centrifuges at Natanz.
Though never confirmed, it is theorised a double agent used a simple flash drive to infect the Natanz computer systems, which were not connected to the Internet to specifically protect it from an outside attack.
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Once implanted, the Stuxnet worm lay dormant inside the Natanz computer network until a specific set of conditions was met.
The malware virus then got to work, changing codes in the system while sending out signals that made it appear everything was running normally.
The Stuxnet backdoor allowed outsiders to seize control of the plant.
Stuxnet allowed the centrifuges at Natanz to spin at a much higher rate and tear themselves apart.
Natanz was knocked offline, severely hampering Iranian ambitions to develop nuclear-armed weapons.
A satellite image shows a damaged building after a fire and explosion at Iran's Natanz nuclear site. Planet Labs Inc.
The Natanz uranium enrichment facility is some 322 kilometres south of the Iranian capital of Tehran. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
Fire strikes Natanz decade after Stuxnet
Last July, 10 years after Stuxnet, Natanz suffered a mysterious explosion at its advanced centrifuge assembly plant that authorities later described as sabotage.
The incident "caused significant damage" and destroyed a central centrifuge assembly workshop.
Centrifuges are needed to produce enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also material for nuclear weapons.
Some Iranian officials believed the fire was caused by a cyberattack.
Iran also blamed Israel for the November killing of a scientist who began the country's military nuclear program decades earlier.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh died in a hail of bullets, shot in his car 65 kilometres east of Tehran.
Iranian revolutionary guard soldiers march during the 2013 annual military parade marking the Iraqi invasion in 1980, which led to an eight-year-long war. AP
Iran's cyber unit and burning US flags
Iran has its own feared cyber warfare unit, not afraid to launch attacks on the US and its perceived allies.
In 2012, Iranian hackers launched an attack against Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco, releasing a virus that erased data on 30,000 computers and left an image of a burning American flag on screens.
In 2016, the US indicted Iranian hackers for a series of punishing cyberattacks on US banks and a small dam outside of New York City.
Tensions have run high between the two countries since the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and began a policy of "maximum pressure" under then-president Donald Trump.
Iranian technicians work at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran. AAP
President Donald Trump speaks last year during a roundtable discussion in Dallas, Texas. AP / Alex Brandon
- Reported with AP, CNN
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