(JTA) — Iran announced the arrests of suspected hackers linked to the Stuxnet malware, which has affected its nuclear facilities.
Heydar Moslehi, the Iranian intelligence minister, did not say how many people had been arrested. Tehran-based media quoted Moslehi as saying Saturday that the attack was now under control.
The program, which is capable of seizing control of industrial plants, has infected at least 30,000 personal computers in Iran, including some affecting the country’s Bushehr nuclear plant, according to Iranian reports.
Iranian officials have said the attack is the work of Israel and other Western powers.
Some reports have said that the worm affected Natanz, a nuclear plant that unlike Bushehr is believed to be part of Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.
Analysts also have uncovered hints within the worm that signal associations with Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia who played a pivotal role in preventing a Jewish genocide, according to the Book of Esther, and with Iranian Jews who have been persecuted by the current regime.
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