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Fact check

Is it true: Stuxnet Iran centrifuge attack (Operation Olympic Games, ~2007-10)?

Confirmed5% confidence

Yes — this is confirmed.

Stuxnet was discovered in June 2010 by VirusBlokAda and analysed by Symantec and Ralph Langner. NYT journalist David Sanger confirmed US-Israeli authorship (Operation Olympic Games) in a June 2012 report based on US official sources. The worm exploited four zero-day vulnerabilities and destroyed an estimated 1,000 IR-1 centrifuges at Natanz. It is the first confirmed nation-state cyber-weapon designed to cause physical destruction.

The claim

Stuxnet was a joint US-Israeli cyber-weapon — developed under the codename Operation Olympic Games — designed to sabotage Iran's uranium enrichment programme at the Natanz facility by targeting Siemen

Key evidence

Symantec technical analysis: PLC-targeting and centrifuge payload confirmed

US and Israel neither confirmed nor denied — standard intelligence posture

Read the full evidence file

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