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Iran's official news agency said today that a sophisticated computer worm purportedly designed to disrupt power grids and other such industrial facilities had infected computers at the country's first nuclear-power plant but had not caused any serious damage.

The Stuxnet worm, which some see as heralding a new era of cyberwarfare, appeared in July and was already known to be widespread in Iran. In fact, its high concentration there, along with a delay in the opening of the Bushehr plant, led one security researcher to hypothesize that Stuxnet was created to sabotage Iran's nuclear industry.

In addition to emphasizing the threat posed by the worm, ... today's news could well add to speculation about Stuxnet, the sophistication of which has caused some to suspect that a nation state, ... might be behind its creation.

The worm exploits three holes in Windows, one of which has been patched...

Mahmoud Jafari, the project manager at the Bushehr plant, said the worm "has not caused any damage to major systems of the plant" ... according to Iran's IRNA news agency, which was cited in a report by the Associated Press.

Jafari said the infection... would not affect plans to open the nuclear plant in October, the AP reported.