A cyber attack on Iranian missile systems, claimed by the US last week, would have had to exploit a flaw in the heavily-guarded network, experts say.

Citing US official sources, American media last week reported that the Army Cyber Command had crippled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's air defence units that shot down a sophisticated drone on June 20.

Military computing security is usually "hardened" to defend against attack but highly-skilled computer scientists in cyber units of modern armies are always working to find a way in.

"The simplest way would be for a special forces member to plug in a USB (carrying a virus) to the right place," Loic Guezo of the French Information Security Club told AFP.

This is almost certainly how the well-known US-Israeli Stexnet virus was introduced in 2010, into the computers of Iran's nuclear complex, according to experts.

Iran at the time accused the US and Israel of using the virus to target its centrifuges used for uranium enrichment.

The Revolutionary Guards are believed to have since bolstered precautionary measures in a bid to isolate their military computer networks from the internet.

- 'Nothing is impenetrable' -

However, according to a military expert who requested anonymity, an "anti-aircraft defence system requires radars, control and command centres and ground-to-air missile sites to be inter-connected".

Those components are connected by intranet networks that "at one time or another" must be connected to the internet.

"In the past, there was no way to connect to a weapon system," said Guezo.

Today, however, he said most computer operating systems are commercial and vulnerable to attacks even if "everything is done to make them impenetrable".

"Nothing is impenetrable," said Guezo.

Modern cyber crime units, especially American and Israeli, have massive resources at their disposal and recruit high-level experts.

The Cyber Command became a fully-fledged combat unit within the US army in May with a budget running into billions of dollars.

In Israel, its renowned 8200 electronic warfare unit attracts the country's best talent.

When cyber attackers "have identified an entry point,", they "intrude the network with messages carrying hyper-aggressive malware which will at least partially cripple the air defence network", said an anonymous military specialist.

- Operation Orchard -

In March 2017, researcher Remy Hemez of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) told of how the Israeli army had used a programme called SUTER in 2007 to temporarily blind Syrian air defence radars.

Operation Orchard, according to Hemez, showed how cyber weapons can successfully be used in battle.

Israeli fighter jets had penetrated deep into Syrian air space to destroy a suspected nuclear facility after having disabled Syrian air defences.

Last week's US claim of an attack on Iranian missile launching systems would have required months or even years of preparation, said Guezo.

"You have to study the architecture of the equipment and then create attack plans," Guezo said.

US cyber attack on Iran shrouded in digital 'fog of war'
Dubai (AFP) June 26, 2019 - A claim by US officials that a retaliatory cyber attack ordered by the White House crippled Iranian missile launching systems will remain almost impossible to substantiate, experts say.

Citing unnamed sources, US media reported last week that the attack launched by the US Cyber Command disabled computers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit responsible for shooting down an American surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz on June 20.

But Tehran denied the reports, saying "no succesful attack has been carried out" by the United States against the Islamic republic.

- All sides 'bluff' -

Julien Nocetti, of the French Institute of International Relations, said all sides "bluff" in such cases.

"You must not reveal your play," he told AFP. "It's an extremely subtle game of cat and mouse."

"It is not surprising the Iranians claim (the cyber attack) failed, and we have no way of verifying the statements of either side," he added.

When it comes to cyber conflict, the "fog of war", as military theorist Carl von Clausewitz calls it, is as thick as ever.

There are no fighting fronts or observers, and evidence and clues can be easily manipulated when the confrontation plays out within computer servers.

The fact that US officials chose, or were instructed, to quickly leak news about the alleged cyber attack points to a desire by President Donald Trump's administration to prove it did not stand idly by, even after calling off a military strike against Tehran, experts said.

According to Nicolas Arpagian, a cyber security expert, the reality of the attack and its exact objectives and effectiveness will remain a mystery.

"In this case, Iranian military targets were chosen. If they had been civilian targets, it would have been different," he told AFP.

"If power plants were targeted, then power would have been cut off. If it were a water company, then people would have lined up to get bottles of water."

Arpagian said only the Iranians would know the scope of the damage from a cyber attack, while destruction from missiles would easily be measured.

"Digital weapons allow President Trump to show the world, and especially his supporters, that he is responding (to Iran)," he said.

"But the fact that the targets are military means only the Iranians could tell if they have suffered any damage, which they will of course not do."

On Monday, Iran's telecommunications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi acknowledged Tehran has "been facing cyber terrorism -- such as Stuxnet -- and unilateralism -- such as sanctions".

But said "no successful attack has been carried out by them, although they are making a lot of effort".

The Stuxnet virus, discovered in 2010, is believed to have been engineered by Israel and the US to damage nuclear facilities in Iran.

Iran at the time accused the US and Israel of using the virus to target its centrifuges used for uranium enrichment.

- 'Parade in Red Square' -

Loic Guezo, of the French Information Security Club, said such cyber attacks show that the US "has the resources and technical capabilities... to neutralise an enemy's system".

"It is the establishment of a balance of power, the equivalent in wars of the future of a parade in (Russia's) Red Square with hundreds of nuclear warheads," he told AFP.

Tensions between Iran and the US have been high since Trump last year unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal signed between Tehran and world powers.

The accord sought to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.

But they spiked in recent weeks after Washington accused Tehran of being behind a series of attacks on tankers in sensitive Gulf waters. Iran has denied any involvement.

For Nocetti, the cyber attack is not only a message for the Iranians but for other countries as well.

"It is a message for the rest of the world, Moscow and Beijing will be watching closely," he said.

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Iran denies US cyber attack ahead of new sanctions
Tehran (AFP) June 24, 2019
Iran denied Monday it was hit by a US cyber attack as Washington was due to tighten sanctions on Tehran in a standoff sparked by the US withdrawal from a nuclear deal. Both nations say they want to avoid going to war, but tensions have spiralled as a series of incidents, including tanker attacks and the shooting down of a US drone by Iran in the Gulf, raised fears of an unintended slide towards conflict. The denial came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks on th ... read more