The Events
An explosion occurred at 12 p.m. on June 25, 2020, at the Parchin military base near the capital, while at the same time there was a power outage in the city of Shiraz, knocking numerous military installations offline. Officially it was said to be caused by a gas storage mishap that had occurred at a power plant near Shiraz which caused the blackout. It is believed that the Parchin military bases conducted tests for the development of nuclear weapons for the Iranian military. Similarly, on 2 July 2020, there was another explosion at a nuclear enrichment centrifuge assembly facility in Natanz, south of the capital Teheran. This facility was seriously damaged in the attack and large parts of it were burned down beyond repair. Iran once again blamed Israel for this attack and warned of serious repercussions on Israel. Although Israel has denied its alleged involvement in both of these attacks.` It is believed that both these attacks were indeed Israeli cyberattacks on Iranian military and power generation facilities with the intent to damage and/or neutralize them. These are both very significant as they show that cyberwarfare is as active and effective at inflicting damage to military and civilian targets as any other conventional attack. According to the Iranian government, it is stated that the damage caused due to the attack at Natanz set back its nuclear program by 1-2 years. But it is believed that the attack and the subsequent damage caused to the centrifuges is so severe that the Iranian nuclear enrichment program may be set back by more than half a decade. It is also believed that the operation could not have been undertaken without insider assistance. This attack is similar in nature to the 2010 Stuxnet virus which was reportedly developed by Mossad and the CIA in a combined operation to knock out Iranian computers engaged in the regulation of enrichment centrifuges. This recent cyberattack reportedly hit an onsite power generation facility which started malfunctioning, leading to generators getting overheated and an eventual meltdown and an explosion that destroyed or damaged a significant number of centrifuges and other military installations at the facility. Also Read: Tehran rejects US ballistic missile talks, also denies increasing range The virus blocked out access to the affected computers, preventing the Iranians from investigating and shutting down the malfunctioning systems. This not only leads to direct physical damage to the facility but also creates mistrust in the minds of the Iranians towards the rest of the computers, as it did during the Stuxnet attack, thus undermining the entire system because of the fear of reemergence of the virus after a certain period of time. This would necessitate a total overhaul of the computer system as it would be risky to process sensitive operations on the same system again due to the trust deficit. The computers which control the centrifuges and other direct or indirect systems related to the enrichment program need to be completely isolated and kept safe from the rest of the internet to protect the system from external interference and any malware and viruses planted by a foreign entity as it happened in this case. In other words, all the devices and systems which are used directly or indirectly in the program must not at any point in time be exposed or plugged into the open-world internet. It is easy for an advanced cyber adversary to exploit the most basic security lapses in the insulation of the system and execute an attack.Gas Centrifugation
Iran uses centrifuges to enrich uranium like every other modern nation. This process is very difficult and complicated. Uranium consists of 92 Protons in its nucleus, due to such a large number of Protons that carry a positive charge the nucleus of the atom should not be able to stay together and would want to immediately move apart due to the repulsion created by the positive charge in the protons. The particles that are able to buttress the charges between the individual Protons and keep the nucleus together are Neutrons. Due to the fact that these particles possess neither a positive nor a negative charge, there are sometimes several different numbers of Neutrons in the nucleus without actually changing the element, these are known as Isotopes. In terms of nuclear enrichment, there are mainly two Uranium Isotopes found naturally on earth, U235 and U238. U238 has three more Neutrons than U235. When mined most of the Uranium, 99.3% to be exact, is U238 and only about 0.7% is U235. U235 is much more reactive compared to U238, it only requires a low energy thermal neutron to split the atom. As such it is much more reactive and efficient to use U235. Therefore, it is necessary to enrich the uranium with U235 to a significant level before it can be used. In nuclear powerplants Uranium enriched up to 2%-5% is used as nuclear fuel, while in nuclear warheads the percentage is more than 90%. The modern method of enrichment which Iran uses in Natanz is the centrifugal enrichment system. In the enrichment process, it is important to divide the U235 from the U238. It is very difficult to divide them in their naked form and therefore it is necessary to convert the elements into a gaseous compound which is done by adding 6 elements of Fluorine. This compound is known as Uranium Hexafluoride (UF6). UF6 in gaseous form is then sent into a centrifuge which spins at supersonic speeds. Due to U238 being heavier it gets concentrated at the edge of the centrifuge, while U235 is concentrated in the centre due to its relative lightweight. This gas in the centre is then removed from the centrifuge which consists of a higher percentage of U235 than what appears naturally. This process is repeated thousands of times, which is known as cascading until the Uranium is sufficiently enriched to be used for civilian or military purposes. The recent attack and the older Stuxnet attack both knocked out the centrifuges in the facility meaning that Iran would now be forced to build new centrifuges to be able to continue its enrichment at a fast pace, severely crippling its ability to keep up with high rates of nuclear enrichment.