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Spengler on Iran: So much pirated software, so little time
Amid the mass of published analysis of the Stuxnet virus, Iran's most obvious vulnerability to cyber-war has drawn little comment: much of the Islamic Republic runs on pirated software. The programmers who apparently cracked Siemens' industrial control code to plant malware in Iran's nuclear facilities needed a high degree of sophistication. Most Iranian computers, though, run on stolen software obtained from public servers sponsored by the Iranian government. It would require far less effort to bring about a virtual shutdown of computation in Iran, and the collapse of the Iranian economy. The information technology apocalypse that the West feared on Y2K (the year 2000) is a real possibility.

On August 25, before the Stuxnet story broke, Brandon Boyce reported on the website Neowin.net:
The Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), an organization directly connected to the Iranian government, is charged with evaluating and advising policymakers on science and technology issues. They are also host to a large FTP server full of pirated software. Searching the FTP you will be able to find a wide range of applications all legal to download and use if you are an Iranian citizen. The FTP server, which was discovered by TorrentFreak, was open to anyone around the world, but shortly after being discovered access was cut off. Initially, they password-protected the FTP and then they cut off access completely to anyone outside of Iran. The server was host to multiple versions of software applications, including Microsoft Office 97 to 2010 or Photoshop 5.5 through CS3, along with appropriate serial numbers, cracks and keygens.
Even the software that the Iranian authorities use to block Internet access is apparently stolen. Wikipedia reports, "The primary engine of Iran's censorship is the content-control software SmartFilter, developed by San Jose firm Secure Computing. However, Secure denies ever having sold the software to Iran, and alleges that Iran is illegally using the software without a license."

Posted by: trailing wife 2010-10-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=307553