A Dutch engineer recruited by the country's intelligence services used a water pump to "plant" the now infamous Stuxnet malware in a nuclear one installation of Iran, according to a two-year survey conducted by Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.
Stuxnet, whose existence came to light in 2010, is believed to be the work of the United States and Israel, with the aim of sabotaging the nuclear program of Iran by attacking industrial control systems (ICS) related to nuclear centrifuges. The malware, which had worm-like capabilities, was said to have infected hundreds of thousands of devices and damaged hundreds of machines.
De Volkskrant's investigation, which included interviews with dozens of people, found that the AIVD, the Netherlands' general intelligence and security agency, a CIA equivalent, recruited Erik van Sabben, a then 36-year-old Dutch national who worked for a heavy transport in Dubai.
Van Sabben was reportedly recruited in 2005 — a few years before the activation of the Stuxnet malware — after the US and Israeli intelligence agencies asked their Dutch counterpart for help.
However, the Dutch agency reportedly did not inform his country's government and was unaware of its full extent businesss. Van Sabben was described as perfect for the job as he had a technical background, did business in Iran and was married to an Iranian woman.
The Stuxnet malware is believed to have been installed in a water pump installed by the Dutch national at the Natanz nuclear complex it had infiltrated.
We don't know if Van Sabben knew exactly what he was doing, but his family reported that he seemed to panic around the time of the Stuxnet attack.
Ο Michael Hayden, who at the time was the head of the CIA, agreed to speak with De Volkskrant, but could not confirm whether Stuxnet was actually delivered via water pumps because that information was classified.
An interesting piece of information that came to light in De Volkskrant's investigation is that Hayden reportedly told one of the newspaper's sources that Stuxnet cost between $1 billion and $2 billion to develop.
