An enigmatic worm that initially targeted Iranian nuclear infrastructure may have also been responsible for the deadly blast at a Revolutionary Guard missile base earlier this month.
Indeed, the Sejil-2 ballistic missile likely exploded due to a technical fault originating in the computer system controlling the missile – rather than a malfunction in the projectile itself.
According to DebkaFile, the warhead blew first, subsequently detonating the solid fuel in the missile’s engines.
The resulting blasts killed all attending technicians, while destroying equipment and structures within a half-kilometer radius.
As such, Iranian investigators have no witnesses to debrief and barely any physical evidence to work with. Nevertheless, Tehran is currently entertaining two theories to account for the incident.
The first?
Western agents or Mossad operatives somehow managed to plant a technician amongst base personnel, who then triggered the explosion via an internal computer station. Alternatively, the computer controlling the missile could have been infected by Stuxnet.
If the second scenario turns out to be true, Tehran definitely has cause for concern, as Iran’s entire Shahab 3 and Sejil 2 ballistic missile arsenal could be infected and out of commission for the immediate future. To be sure, Western experts believe the resurrected Stuxnet worm would likely to take several months to purge.
