A computer virus dubbed the world's "first cyber superweapon" by experts and which may have been designed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities has found a new target -- China.

The Stuxnet computer worm has wreaked havoc in China, infecting millions of computers around the country, state media reported this week.

Stuxnet is feared by experts around the globe as it can break into computers that control machinery at the heart of industry, allowing an attacker to assume control of critical systems like pumps, motors, alarms and valves.

It could, technically, make factory boilers explode, destroy gas pipelines or even cause a nuclear plant to malfunction.

The virus targets control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities. [BreitBart]

That use of the word “Myrtus” — which can be read as an allusion to Esther — to name a file inside the code is one of several murky clues that have emerged as computer experts try to trace the origin and purpose of the rogue Stuxnet program, which seeks out a specific kind of command module for industrial equipment.

Not surprisingly, the Israelis are not saying whether Stuxnet has any connection to the secretive cyberwar unit it has built inside Israel’s intelligence service. Nor is the Obama administration, which while talking about cyberdefenses has also rapidly ramped up a broad covert program, inherited from the Bush administration, to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. In interviews in several countries, experts in both cyberwar and nuclear enrichment technology say the Stuxnet mystery may never be solved.

There are many competing explanations for myrtus, which could simply signify myrtle, a plant important to many cultures in the region. But some security experts see the reference as a signature allusion to Esther, a clear warning in a mounting technological and psychological battle as Israel and its allies try to breach Tehran’s most heavily guarded project. Others doubt the Israelis were involved and say the word could have been inserted as deliberate misinformation, to implicate Israel. (NYTimes)

Normally I wouldn’t find this information that interesting or surprising except that I came across this bit of news the same day.  SheikhRadd Salah, leader of the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, makes the following statement at a conference organized by website Islam Online in Doha, Qatar:

“Netanyahu is about to build the false Temple, and when the Jews build the Temple they will do so upon the ruins of the Al-Aqsa [Mosque].”

On the ruins of the mosque?  It is still standing as of today; I am curious as to how SheikhRadd Salah believes it will end up in ruins.  In light of the fact that Al-Aqsa mosque is only the third most sacred site for Islam, and that first most sacred site (Mecca) may be receiving a major upgrade, it could be that a time is soon coming in which the Arab world will decide to forfeit/abandon/leave their claim to the Temple Mount.  As much of a bargaining chip as the Temple Mount is for the Arabs, Radd Salah’s statements and Mecca’s re-design tend to make me believe that their forfeit or forcible removal from the mount is not that far-fetched, and may come sooner than later.