Stuxnet apparently as effective as a military strike

By kgb999 on Sat, 12/18/2010 - 8:37pm |

Damage from the Stuxnet virus has apparently set back the Iranian nuclear program by as much as two years, according to a German security expert talking to the Jerusalem Post. This makes the virus as effective as a military strike—but without loss of life or risk of full-blown war.

[...]

If the damage to the Iranian nuclear program is genuine, this makes Stuxnet something of a landmark in cyberwar history. Much has been made of the threat of computer-based attacks, but thus far they appear to have been limited to either denial-of-service attacks, website defacement, or attempts to break into systems to steal classified data.

Stuxnet is something of a different beast. This was no crude DoS attack or vandalistic defacement. It is a carefully developed, specifically targeted device, one intended to cause subtle but substantial damage to key infrastructure. While a DoS or defacement may take a few days or weeks to clear up, Stuxnet-like attacks have the potential to set back their victims by many years.

URL:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/stuxnet-apparently-as-effective-as-a-military-strike.ars

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kgb, this is hugely important, isn't it? Whether it was the US or Israel that authored Stuxnet, the point is that the goal of taking Iran's nuclear capabilities out, or at least incapacitating them, was accomplished without a single shot fired. Shouldn't this be on the front page of the NYTimes?

by seashell on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 6:24pm

FDL-ers wrote about Stuxnet; I only scanned because I don;t understand any of it, but here's a page of links to what was written there.

http://firedoglake.com/search/?cx=012863467380897931540%3Abacmcr9sohw&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=stuxnet&siteurl=firedoglake.com%2F#1741

by we are stardust on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 6:34pm

Thanks, Wendy!

by seashell on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 7:32pm

And if the code for this particular application should make it way into the black hacker community where it would be extensively modified and adapted to other areas........

by cmaukonen on Sun, 12/19/2010 - 6:37pm

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