nuclear-news

The Stuxnet worm a potential cyber weapon

Cyberworm’s Origins Unclear, But Potential Is Not : NPR
Cyberworm’s Origins Unclear, But Potential Is Not : NPR, by Tom Gjelten, 28 Sept 10 It is not yet clear whether the “Stuxnet” computer worm has caused any damage to the industrial control systems it has penetrated, but security experts say it still qualifies as a potential cyber-superweapon.
A Cyberbomb

“Whether it’s a flow meter or a temperature [gauge], this threat got very far into the control systems of the real world,” says Gerry Egan, a security response director at Symantec, the computer security company. “This attack was not about stealing information. This attack was about physically doing things, [like] turning a dial, reading a sensor.”

Turning a dial on a gas pipeline conceivably could have blown it up. Tinkering with the centrifuge in a nuclear plant could have rendered it ineffective. At least in theory, the Stuxnet worm could have had the effect of a bomb……..

In an actual war scenario, uncertainties about both the perpetrator and the intended target would make it difficult for a country to respond to a cyberattack. An Iranian newspaper Sunday quoted a senior Iranian official as saying the Stuxnet worm was created “in line with the West’s electronic warfare against Iran,” but the report cited no evidence to back up that claim.

There is also a lesson in the Stuxnet episode for any government considering the use of a cyberweapon against another country: The possibility of collateral damage is high. Stuxnet infections have so far been reported in many countries over a wide geographic area.

“Once a computer worm is released in the wild, it will move freely,” says Reveron. “This makes it extremely difficult to weaponize something like this, because you can’t necessarily insulate your own systems from the attack.”

Cyberworm’s Origins Unclear, But Potential Is Not : NPR

September 28, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear