A claim by US officials that a retaliatory cyber attack ordered by the White House crippled Iranian missile launching systems will remain almost impossible to substantiate, experts say.

Citing unnamed sources, US media reported last week that the attack launched by the US Cyber Command disabled computers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit responsible for shooting down an American surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz on June 20. . . .

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“It is not surprising the Iranians claim (the cyber attack) failed, and we have no way of verifying the statements of either side,” he added.

When it comes to cyber conflict, the “fog of war,” as military theorist Carl von Clausewitz calls it, is as thick as ever.

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There are no fighting fronts or observers, and evidence and clues can be easily manipulated when the confrontation plays out within computer servers. . . .

On Monday, Iran’s telecommunications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi acknowledged Tehran has “been facing cyber terrorism — such as Stuxnet — and unilateralism — such as sanctions.”

But said “no successful attack has been carried out by them, although they are making a lot of effort.”

The Stuxnet virus, discovered in 2010, is believed to have been engineered by Israel and the US to damage nuclear facilities in Iran.

Iran at the time accused the US and Israel of using the virus to target its centrifuges used for uranium enrichment. (Excerpt from Times of Israel)