What's new
By:
Filters

New cyber superweapon

I read about this the other day and it brought a smile to my face. I don't think it will make me very happy if it is used against us though. Anyway, for those who haven't read this article you should check it out. Very interesting.
 
This went on until June of last year, when a Belarusan company working on the Iranian power plant in Beshehr discovered it in one of its machines. It quickly put out a notice on a Web network monitored by computer security experts around the world. Ordinarily these experts would immediately begin tracing the worm and dissecting it, looking for clues about its origin and other details.

But that didn’t happen, because within minutes all the alert sites came under attack and were inoperative for 24 hours.
Click to expand...

Admittedly I don't know much about how computer viruses propagate, but the way they describe it, reminds me of genetic algorithms. That is, forcing an algorithm to evolve in order to get a task done. Maybe it wasn't written so much as iteratively evolved, then set loose when ready.
 
chemdude1232 said:
Admittedly I don't know much about how computer viruses propagate, but the way they describe it, reminds me of genetic algorithms. That is, forcing an algorithm to evolve in order to get a task done. Maybe it wasn't written so much as iteratively evolved, then set loose when ready.
Click to expand...
I'm no great expert, and I know it takes a lot of code to cover all the possibilities, but basically theres a lot of :"If X, then go to" loops. What's this "genetic algorithm" business, a computational approach to designing genes? Yeah I know about iterative repetitions designed to achieve some kind of optimum result. . . .

deep in the link, it was noted that this could not have been done without inside knowledge from technology suppliers from the US, Germany, and Russia, all cooperating to target the equipment installed in the plant.

I guess what this says is. . . . . "Look, Dorks, if you think you're gonna buy our technology and then build nukes to bomb us to smithereens. . . . . "

Or, "Oh, yah, we'll take your money but don't even think of. . . . ."
 
Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm
Click to expand...

If this is true (it being undetectable), how the hell did they detect it then?
 
That is amazing. I have always wondered when we would start to see some real cyber warfare and I think we are beginning to see it. Here is the thing though, it all could have been prevented by not allowing anyone to attach any sort of usb card/memory stick to the computers at the site. Someone had to bring this in either directly or indirectly in order for it to happen.
 
Fascinating stuff; thanks for posting.

At first glance, I thought "There's no way this is real," but after doing some research it does indeed seem to be accurate.
 
GoJazz said:
That is amazing. I have always wondered when we would start to see some real cyber warfare and I think we are beginning to see it. Here is the thing though, it all could have been prevented by not allowing anyone to attach any sort of usb card/memory stick to the computers at the site. Someone had to bring this in either directly or indirectly in order for it to happen.
Click to expand...

Great points you made. The article said it had to rely on someone taking their work home with them (in many cases, this is simply not allowed at some of the US's national labs...depends on the level of security), implying that Iran has a somewhat lax policy on that.

Further digging around has revealed that there are two main "suspects" for having developed it: us (the USA) or the Israelis. The predominating theory is that the Israelis developed it - there are subtle clues within the program that imply Israel created it (references to dates in time where Israelis died, references to "Myrtus," the Hebrew word for "Esther," etc.).

There is some news coming out that Stuxnet has made its way over to China as well, with China's PR maching adamantly denying both its presence in China as well as its crippling capabilities. Given the correct command, Stuxnet could likely bring China's industries/military/whatever to its knees.

Still, some fascinating stuff going on.
 
chemdude1232 said:
Great points you made. The article said it had to rely on someone taking their work home with them (in many cases, this is simply not allowed at some of the US's national labs...depends on the level of security), implying that Iran has a somewhat lax policy on that.

Further digging around has revealed that there are two main "suspects" for having developed it: us (the USA) or the Israelis. The predominating theory is that the Israelis developed it - there are subtle clues within the program that imply Israel created it (references to dates in time where Israelis died, references to "Myrtus," the Hebrew word for "Esther," etc.).

There is some news coming out that Stuxnet has made its way over to China as well, with China's PR maching adamantly denying both its presence in China as well as its crippling capabilities. Given the correct command, Stuxnet could likely bring China's industries/military/whatever to its knees.

Still, some fascinating stuff going on.
Click to expand...

One would hope that if the US and/or her allies developed this thing they have a way of immediately detecting and cleaning it up very quickly should it hit US systems.
 
Marcus said:
One would hope that if the US and/or her allies developed this thing they have a way of immediately detecting and cleaning it up very quickly should it hit US systems.
Click to expand...

I have always felt that as a Nation we should be recruiting and paying the top Hackers in the world to work for us on things like this. If you think about it something like this could bring the entire USA to its knee's pretty quickly. Imagine if they crippled our power supply to the point of shutting down the grid for more then a few hours.

Back to the article.

Why are the Dutch helping Iran find a virus at a Nuclear Plant? Aren't there sanctions prohibiting this in the 1000+ UN Resolutions relating to this?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top