Digital first strike

[Skybird]

Here are two links two articles about stuxnet - and how it now is believed to be a massive digital attack in order to strike out at the Iranian nuclear weapons program. It is thoght that in early 2009 this trojan attack was responsible for the reduction of operational centrigues in Iran although at that time the Iranians installed more and more of such centrifuges. It is also said that such a highly cojmplex trojan cannot be just the tool of some hobby criminal, but must be formed and used with the ressources that only national states have.

The better, very detailed essay is the German one, for which I was not able to find an English equivalent somewehre. The second and third English links are just a brief summary of some features of the story. If you have a good essay on it, add it to the list. Please note that the conclusions are no Iranian propagandistic conspiracy theory, but are the results of examinations by professional German digital security experts and -analysts.

http://www.faz.net/s/RubCEB3712D41B64C3094E31BDC1446D18E/Doc~E8A0D43832567452FBDEE07AF579E893C~ATpl~Ecommon ~Scontent.html

http://www.daemonnews.org/2010/09/21...n-nuclear.html

http://planet-iran.com/index.php/news/24138

Originally Posted by FAZ

„So etwas bauen große Staaten zusammen, wenn die Alternative bei einem Misserfolg wäre, einen Krieg anzufangen.“

"Stuff like that (struxnet) gets built by national states if the only alternative would be to start a war."

[Skybird]

BBC now has a longer essay in English, too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11388018

[Skybird]

The plot is thickening. It already was said that Stuxnet'S developement was beyond the financial reach of just any private hacker organisation, and that background knowledge on the installations was needed that a hacker would not have if not being a specialist for the attacked installations himself.

The NYT now reports that Stuxnet is a cooperation between the two most likely suspects, Israel and the US, and that Israel tested the software, which is said to have been incredibly complex and clever, in an installation where they have copied the to-be-attacked hardware of the Iranian installations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/wo...16stuxnet.html

I admit I somewhat admire the competence level being shown in the design and developement of this cyber-weapon.

Edit: it seems the Times blocks access to the site somehow. Enter this search term at Google:


Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay

Then find one of the first entries that is on the NYT website. This workaround works fo me. You should get an article with that healdine and 4 pages

[the_tyrant]

you know, John Boyd in The Strategic Game of ? and ? says that there are 3 levels of conflict:
physical, mental, and moral

we can use computers in the mental and moral parts of conflict, but now with this virus, computers are also useful in the physical part too

I have a feeling that pearl harbor 2.0 would be JSDF hackers attacking us navy computers and detonating weapons before they are launched, followed up by injecting malware in the firmware upgrades of american fire control systems

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

I have a feeling that pearl harbor 2.0 would be JSDF hackers attacking us navy computers and detonating weapons before they are launched, followed up by injecting malware in the firmware upgrades of american fire control systems

That kind of stuff is really easy to prevent. Software updates by disk only hard coded in to our computer systems. Then guard those disks like the launch codes. It would slow down response time to problems but it would practically remove a problem at the same time.

A few years ago they banned USB drives from the Pentagon because that was how Chinese made viruses were getting in. (That is also how Suxnet got in) That was a step in the right direction.

(BTW I doubt it would be JSDF guys doing it)

[Skybird]

The updates you store on your precious discs, get created in some place. And that is the attack target, that is how I would take aim. Which makes the discs themselves already being infested. Also, there is the human factor. You will always have individuals who are prone to enemy blackmailing, and persuasions.