The United Nations’ nuclear regulatory body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), announced yesterday that it found malicious software on a number of its machines, but that its networks have not been compromised.
According to a Reuters report, the infected computers were housed in a common area of the IAEA’s Vienna, Austria headquarters, known as the Vienna International Center.
Serge Gas, IAEA director of public information, told Reuters that the only data believed to have been compromised in the attack were USB sticks belonging to visitors – not employees – of the Vienna International Center. Though he would later issue a seemingly contradictory statement to Reuters.
“The (IAEA) secretariat does not believe that the USB devices themselves were infected or that they could spread the malware further,” Gas told Reuters via email. “No data from the IAEA network has been affected.”
It is not clear who could have launched the attack, but the IAEA is heavily involved in the contentious investigation of Iran’s move toward developing nuclear capabilities.
This is merely the latest in an increasingly long line of attacks targeting agencies and organizations involved with nuclear and other energies, nearly all of which in some way implicate the U.S. and its allies and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
