Operation Olympic Games

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Operation Olympic Games was an ostensible and still unacknowledged campaign of sabotage by means of cyber disruption, directed at Iranian nuclear facilities likely by the United States and Israel. As reported, it is one of the first known uses of offensive cyber weapons. Started under the administration of George W. Bush in 2006, Olympic Games was accelerated under President Obama, who heeded Bush's advice to continue cyber attacks on the Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz. Bush believed that the strategy was the only way to prevent an Israeli conventional strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.[1]

History

During Bush's second term, General

dissuade the Israelis from carrying out their own preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities".[1] To prevent a conventional strike, Israel had to be deeply involved in Operation Olympic Games. The computer virus created by the two countries became known as "the bug," and Stuxnet by the IT community once it became public. The malicious software temporarily halted approximately 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges from spinning at Natanz.[2]

A programming error in "the bug" caused it to spread to computers outside of Natanz. When an engineer "left Natanz and connected [his] computer to the Internet, the American- and Israeli-made bug failed to recognize that its environment had changed."

Symantec and Kaspersky Lab
have since examined Stuxnet. It is unclear whether the United States or Israel introduced the programming error.

Significance

According to the

Atlantic Monthly, Operation Olympic Games is "probably the most significant covert manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum since World War II, when Polish cryptanalysts[3] broke the Enigma cipher that allowed access to Nazi codes."[4] The New Yorker claims Operation Olympic Games is "the first formal offensive act of pure cyber sabotage by the United States against another country, if you do not count electronic penetrations that have preceded conventional military attacks, such as that of Iraq's military computers before the 2003 invasion of Iraq."[5] Therefore, "American and Israeli official action can stand as justification for others."[5]

The Washington Post reported that Flame malware was also part of Olympic Games.[6]

Leak investigation

In June 2013, it was reported that Cartwright was the target of a year-long investigation by the US Department of Justice into the leak of classified information about the operation to the US media.[7] In March 2015, it was reported that the investigation had stalled amid concerns that necessary evidence for prosecution was too sensitive to reveal in court.[8]

Referring to unnamed sources within the CIA and NSA, the documentary film Zero Days claims that the Stuxnet/Olympic Games malware was just a small part of a much larger mission to infiltrate and compromise Iran—"Nitro Zeus" (NZ).

See also

References

  1. ^
    OCLC 1645522. Archived from the original
     on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022. President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran's main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America's first sustained use of cyberweapons
  2. OCLC 1112982546
    . [...] the operation of the Stuxnet virus caused the destruction of around 1,000 centrifuges at the Natanz site, which could have delayed Iran's nuclear programme by about 1 year.
  3. OCLC 44452888
    .
  4. OCLC 936540106
    . Retrieved 30 March 2022. America's attack -- which, Sanger reports, the government nicknamed "Olympic Games" -- is probably the most significant covert manipulation of the electromagnetic spectrum since World War II, when cryptanalysts broke the Enigma cipher that allowed access to Nazi codes.
  5. ^
    OCLC 909782404. Archived
    from the original on 14 November 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2022. "Olympic Games" seems to be, so far as is known, the first formal offensive act of pure cyber sabotage by the United States against another country [...]
  6. OCLC 2269358. Archived
    from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022. This is about preparing the battlefield for another type of covert action," said one former high-ranking U.S. intelligence official, who added that Flame and Stuxnet were elements of a broader assault that continues today. "Cyber-collection against the Iranian program is way further down the road than this.
  7. ^ "Reports: Retired General Target Of Leaks Probe". Here & Now. WBUR-FM. Associated Press. 28 June 2013. Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2022. A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is under investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to media reports. [...] Retired Marine Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright has been told he is a target of the probe, NBC News and The Washington Post reported Thursday
  8. OCLC 2269358. Archived
    from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2022. A sensitive leak investigation of a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has stalled amid concerns that a prosecution in federal court could force the government to confirm a joint U.S.-Israeli covert operation targeting Iran, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Further reading

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