Stuxnet is what many claim is one of the most sophisticated malware ever. Computer security experts around the world are amazed by it. Search and destroy is apparently what the Stuxnet does. It will sabotage anything it heads for. Only a nation-state would have enough time, money and talent to ever create something as complex since the Stuxnet rather than rogue hackers, states cybersecurity experts. Information hacked typically is info on factories, power plants and water systems as Stuxnet travels. It also does not travel through the internet as it is spread through thumb drives and printer spoolers instead. The Stuxnet is expected to be targeting the Bushehr nuclear power plant. This is because it has been showing up in Iran the most often.
Is the Bushehr reactor the sabotage Stuxnet is looking for?
June was the first time Stuxnet was detected. Computer security specialists can’t figure out the complexity and encryption of the thing, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Stuxnet is the only software found that can do what it can. No other program can steal specific data about power plants, electric grids, chemical plants and factories. Cybersecurity researcher Ralph Langler told the Monitor that Stuxnet is a precision, military-grade cyber missile deployed to seek and destroy one high value target. Langler is pretty sure that Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant was the target and has already been hit. For unknown reasons, Bushehr has postponed its startup. It was expected to start up in August.
How Stuxnet is expected to work
Stuxnet has already infected around 45,000 computer systems around the world. The Daily Mail reports the worm targets computer systems that aren’t connected to the internet for security reasons. Any PCs running Microsoft Windows is in danger. It is spread through USB thumb drives to these computers. Stuxnet starts working once the thumb drive is in. It does not need any kind of clicking or keying in to start it. Stuxnet looks for any Siemens software running control systems that are industrial once in computer. Industrial machinery is given new instructions that are dangerous once it finds the software. Experts say Stuxnet is capable of taking control of key processes to set off a sequence that makes an entire system self-destruct.
Stuxnet launches new era of cyber warfare
Stuxnet has set off alarms because of the complexity its code and also the wide array of different techniques bundled into one package. Liam O’Murchu of Symantec, who tracked the worm since it was detected, told BBC News that Stuxnet uses a lot of new techniques never seen before that allowed it to spread. The worm works with vulnerabilities in Windows. These weren’t known before this. The project for Stuxnet had to have been a well-planned, well-funded, large project, according to O’Murchu. Langer explains that Stuxnet has a lot of insider knowledge. It was needed to create a sabotage attack like this. ”This isn’t some hacker sitting within the basement of his parents’ house,” he explained evidently. “To me, seems like that the resources needed to stage this attack point to a nation state.”
Additional reading
Christian Science Monitor
csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0921/Stuxnet-malware-is-weapon-out-to-destroy-Iran-s-Bushehr-nuclear-plant
Daily Mail
dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1314580/Stuxnet-worm-targeted-Iranian-nuclear-power-station-sophisticated-virus-attack-ever.html?ITO=1490
BBC News
bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11388018
