Shortly after taking office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama secretly ordered sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that control Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, the New York Times reported.

According to the report, Obama decided to expand attacks that had begun during the George W. Bush administration.

The report said that the Stuxnet worm, the existence of which became public in 2010, was developed by the United States and Israel as part of a joint effort to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program.

Obama reportedly decided that cyber attacks should continue, even after Stuxnet was publicized.

According to the report, internal Obama administration estimates show that the sabotage effort set the Iranian nuclear program back 18 months to two years, but many experts, both in and out of government, are skeptical of this assessment.

For more go to Haaretz.com

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