The Stuxnet Virus Essay Example for Free

The Stuxnet Virus EssayHistoric data shows that Iran accounted for almost sixty pct of the early infections. According to Siemens, 15 of its customers were identified as having detected the worm on their forms as of Sept. 14. Stuxnet used stolen digital certificates from Realtek Semiconductor and JMicron Technology to legitimately shimmy through and hide. The certificates also helped keep Stuxnet under the radar. 1. 1 why are tout ensemble the fingers pointing to the United States and Israel? Most cyber security experts who have researched this complex attack diagnose it a joint U. S.Israeli operation, which may have also included Germany and Great Britain. It is also a well known fact which, incidentally, has not been denied by either the US. or Israel, that Israeli intelligence tested aspects of the worm using centrifuges identical to Irans at Israels Dimona complex. Even Siemens the German company cooperated with Idaho case Laboratories in the US to identify the vulnerab ilities of computer controllers that the company sells to operate industrial machinery around the world. Not too long afterwards, those rattling vulnerabilities were exploited by Stuxnet. . Why a Cyber Attack? Cyber warfare requires intellect not military might and a country does not have to be a military top executive to wage a cyber attack. Cyber attack tracks are much easier to cover and are easily attributable to another entity. While cyber attacks are only recently been tell by our military and political leadership as acts of war, compared to an actual physical military attack on another country life can go on as usual for most of the citizens on both sides of the conflict without the slightest idea that their country is at war.It does not cost billions of dollars to run or divvy up and is hardly a long-term commitment of hundreds of thousands of troops and the logistics to support them and their equipment at the front lines. In case of Iran, a cyber attack was the most via ble cream available to global reasons because the Iranian regime did not hesitate to make threats against the United States and Israel should it have been attacked militarily to make it stop trying to produce atomic weapons. 2. 1 What exactly is Stuxnet designed to do? Graphic Courtesy of The New York Times, January 15, 2011Stuxnet is the first malware of its type designed to cross over the cyber industrial divide and contend critical infrastructure like power stations and electricity grids. On 26 September 2010, Irans state news agency reported that computers at its Bushehr thermonuclear power plant had been infected. The New York Times article, Israeli Test on Worm called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay, describes the complex function of Stuxnet in very simple terms One part of the program is designed to lie dormant for long periods, and then speed up the machines so that the spinning rotors in the centrifuges wobble and then destroy themselves.Another part, called a man in th e middle in the computer world, sends out those false sensor signals to make the system believe everything is running smoothly. That prevents a safety system from kicking in, which would shut down the plant before it could self-destruct. The same article further quotes Ralph Langer, widely credit for having solved Stuxnet, as saying Code analysis makes it clear hat Stuxnet is not about sending a message or proving a concept, and later(prenominal) saying It is about destroying its targets with utmost determination in military style. Stuxnet was designed to seek out its target, cripple it beyond repair without causing any substantiating damage stay lurking in the shadows to continue to strike, all without leaving any conclusive evidence of who sent it on its mission in the first place. unneeded to say, it succeeded in its mission. 2. 2 How effective was Stuxnet and why?To sit remotely, thousands of miles away and receive an email update from your smart malware that it has disable d your enemys commercial power grid says something about the power and effectiveness of this new weapon of cyber warfare. By most accounts and estimates damage from the Stuxnet virus has apparently set back the Iranian nuclear program by at least two years. This makes the virus as effective as a military strike, perhaps even more all this without loss of life, collateral damage, or risk of a full-blown war. 3.History and future of nation state cyber warfare According to the Council on Foreign Relations, although some countries beyond the well-known players like China, Russia, and Israel and a handful of others have historically possessed the capability to launch a full scale cyber attack along the lines of the Stuxnet attack, over one hundred countries have begun to organize cyber warfare units. (Masters, 2011, sec. 2) Across the world, countries are either engaged in cyber battles with their arch enemies or gearing up to bolster their defenses against cyber warfare.