Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program Crippled by Computer Worm

[Mathnomalous]

According to Ed Barnes reporting for FoxNews.com

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/

The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus.

Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

The target was seemingly impenetrable; for security reasons, it lay several stories underground and was not connected to the World Wide Web. And that meant Stuxnet had to act as sort of a computer cruise missile: As it made its passage through a set of unconnected computers, it had to grow and adapt to security measures and other changes until it reached one that could bring it into the nuclear facility.

When it ultimately found its target, it would have to secretly manipulate it until it was so compromised it ceased normal functions.

And finally, after the job was done, the worm would have to destroy itself without leaving a trace.

I like that kind of war: Clean, quiet, casualty-free. Congratulations to George W. Bush?

 

[Pengwuino]

According to Ed Barnes reporting for FoxNews.com

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/


I like that kind of war: Clean, quiet, casualty-free. Congratulations to George W. Bush?

Bush only knows Java.

 

[Pengwuino]

Here's a couple of analysis that downplay the direct role of the virus with the inefficiency in Iran's program.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2010/09/sec-100928-voa01.htm
http://sitrep.globalsecurity.org/articles/100929660-stuxnet-great-cyberweapon-or-c.htm

 

[NobodySpecial]

AI like that kind of war: Clean, quiet, casualty-free. Congratulations to George W. Bush?

Possibly a dangerous one to start.
Who would suffer more if computers controlling power stations, air traffic control, subways, chemical plants etc all suffered breakdowns due to a computer worm launched undetectably from an unidentified enemy on the other side of the world?
Normally superpowers tend to prefer that wars be fought on their terms - with nice expensive fleets of things in uniform

Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct

Odd that anyone would assume it was the product of a government IT project!

 

[FlexGunship]

What's interesting is that the virus was tailed specifically to attack the control systems which use the Siemens Step 7 software suite. It can't possibly just be a fluke virus; S7 is for industrial equipment. Crazy.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What's interesting is that the virus was tailed specifically to attack the control systems which use the Siemens Step 7 software suite. It can't possibly just be a fluke virus; S7 is for industrial equipment. Crazy.

Haha, that puts about 10% of my projects in jeopardy!

[actually, about 30% for last year]

I can't wait to tell the guys at Rockwell. "Use Rockwell or the Government might take you out!" I'm tempted to call the Siemens group and ask for anti-virus protection.

 

[Mathnomalous]

They should have bought Macs.

 

[lisab]

An earlier thread on this:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=431935

 

[Ivan Seeking]

CONFIRMATION that the international campaign against Iran's nuclear program has made headway recently came from a seemingly unlikely source: Israel's intelligence chief. Last week, Meir Dagan, outgoing head of the Mossad intelligence agency, said that Iran could not now acquire a nuclear weapon before 2015, because of unspecified technical problems.

...An ingenious computer virus called Stuxnet may have put hundreds or even thousands of centrifuges used in uranium enrichment out of action...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/12/AR2011011205566.html

I was struck by the ad photo next to the story.