Cyber Attack on Iranian’s Nuclear Program Assailed by NATO Group
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A cyber attack allegedly committed by the U.S. and Israel over a three-year-period to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program was probably illegal, according to a NATO report.
International legal experts assigned by NATO’s cyber defense center in Estonia to investigate the so-called Stuxnet attack that set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by two to three years called it an “act of force.”
As such, acts of force that “kill or injure persons or destroy or damage objects” are banned under the United Nations charter, except when done in self-defense.
While the U.S. and Israel have never acknowledged any role in the cyber attack, U.S. national security officials said the two countries were behind Stuxnet, which is believed to have been undertaken from 2008 through 2010.
However, some experts, including James A. Lewis, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, maintain there is still not enough evidence to ascertain whether the cyber attack was an act of force.
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