Stuxnet is new and being described by numerous. One of the most sophisticated malware ever is one of the most common description. Computer security experts around the world are amazed by it. The Stuxnet weapon is being said it can sabotage with a search and destroy method. The cybersecurity experts say that only a nation-state, not a band of rogue hackers, would have the time, cash and talent to develop a worm with the complexity of Stuxnet. Data hacked typically is data on factories, power plants and water systems as Stuxnet travels. It also does not travel through the web as it is spread via thumb drives and printer spoolers instead. Numerous believe it was meant specifically to target the Bushehr nuclear power plant as Stuxnet has shown up in Iran quite a bit.
Is the Bushehr reactor going to be sabotaged by Stuxnet?
Stuxnet was first detected in June. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the worm’s complexity and encryption has dumbfounded computer security specialists. Stuxnet is the only software known that steals software for chemical plants, factories, power plants and electric grids within the world that has been found. Stuxnet is a military-grad cyber missile intended on hitting on target. This is as outlined by Cybersecurity researcher, Ralph Langler, who told this to the Monitor. Langler is pretty sure that Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant was the target and has already been hit. Bushehr was expected to start up in August but then was delayed for reasons that are unknown.
How Stuxnet seeks and destroys
In the world, Stuxnet has already infected computer systems. It has hit at least 45,000 systems so far. 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 via USB thumb drives to these computers. The PC does not need any person to key in any kind of code for it to work. Stuxnet looks for any Siemens software running control systems that are industrial once in computer. It attacks by reprogramming software to give industrial machinery new, supposedly dangerous instructions. Stuxnet is expected to make systems self-destruct as it takes control of key processes.
Stuxnet launches new era of cyber warfare
Alarms have been hit with Stuxnet. This is because its code is so complex along with the numerous different techniques in it. Liam O’Murchu of Symantec talked to BBC News. He told them that Stuxnet spreads so easily since the techniques used are so unfamiliar to computers. Windows vulnerabilities that weren’t known before are being exploited by the worm. The project for Stuxnet had to have been a well-planned, well-funded, large project, according to O’Murchu. Langer explains that Stuxnet has lots 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 obviously. “To me, seems like the resources needed to stage this attack point to a nation state.”
Further 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
