Contact details of international scientists from a
computer server of the International Atomic Energy Agency have
appeared on a hacker website, the agency confirmed Tuesday in Vienna.
The message posted online Sunday contained a threat to publish
additional personal information if the roadside bombings that have
killed several Iranian nuclear scientists continue.
"We are reassuring IAEA that their critical information is safe
with us as we are brothers. However, we can not guarantee the same if
a Western-favoured element entertains another sip of motorbike &
magnetbomb cocktail," said the message by one or more hackers going
by the Persian name Parastoo.
Tehran has accused Israel and Western governments of having
attacked its nuclear experts.
IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said that her organization's IT
experts were investigation the data breach.
"The IAEA deeply regrets this publication of information stolen
from an old server that was shut down some time ago," she said.
A source following the incident told dpa that it was unlikely that
official Iranian entities were behind the IT attack: "It was too
ham-fisted to be the official effort on behalf of a government."
The message on the hacker site made a reference to the computer
virus Stuxnet, which experts believe was developed by Western
intelligence agencies to harm Iran's nuclear installations.
The hacker or hackers called on the physicists on the IAEA list to
petition for an IAEA probe of Israel's nuclear programme.
The email addresses of the exposed scientists were likely stored
on the server because they attended IAEA events, the source said. The
scientists are not related to the IAEA's Iran investigations, he
said.
