11 June 1997

Janes' Defence Weekly, June 11, 1997

## Unleashing Microbots on Iran's IT Networks

Unlike the 1990-1991 Gulf War, when the USA inserted a National Security Agency-developed, virus-laden microchip into a French computer printer headed for Baghdad, in 2015 the USA relies on several methods for infecting Iranian computers. These efforts hope to get around problems created by the proliferation of encryption technology.

While some peripheral equipment, like printers, will be intercepted and bugged in order to disable mainframe computers, intelligence technicians will also use the internet to send guided viruses into Iran's national information infrastructure.

Thumbnail-sized micro-robots, known as `microbots', will also be unleashed by micro-air vehicles and naval guns. These parasites will creep into electronic equipment, attach themselves, and keep themselves alive by draining generator power.

Once the electronics system's energy is depleted, the fully charged microscopic vermin will search for a new victim.

The main problem will be that they are too small to carry identification equipment and so they infect indiscriminately. As such, they must be deployed far away from allied equipment.

However, packages of microbots can be destroyed remotely as allies prepare to invade enemy territory.

[Copyright 1997, Jane's Information Group]