Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

by Kim Zetter

The Israelis wanted US support and endorsement for an air strike to take out the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. The Israelis had been gunning for an air strike since at least 2003, when IAEA inspectors got their first look at Natanz and found highly enriched uranium particles in environmental samples taken from the plant. Talk of an air strike died down for a while after Iranian officials agreed to suspend their enrichment activities in 2003 and 2004, but returned in 2006 when Iran withdrew from the suspension agreement and proceeded to install the first centrifuges in one of the underground halls at the plant. Now, with 3,000 centrifuges already in place and spinning, and the number expected to double soon, talk of a strike was growing louder than ever before. Israel wasn’t the only one urging an attack. Behind closed doors, its Arab neighbors were just as adamant about halting Iran’s nuclear program, according to secret government cables released by WikiLeaks. “We are all terrified,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told US diplomats at one point.1 Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah privately urged the United States to do them all a favor where Iran and Ahmadinejad were concerned and “cut off the head of the snake.”2 A nuclear-armed Iran threatened the peace of the entire region, not just Israel, Mohammad bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi said. If Iran got the bomb, “all hell will break loose,” he said, warning that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey would all seek...