a good reading about Stuxnet

[JockoJohnson]

Beyond that, I don't think it damaged Iran all that much and by now I assume Iran is monitoring frequencies of its siemen controllers by independent means.

So do I need to monitor my semen because Stuxnet might make me infertile?

 

[BeauJangles]

Yup stuxnet is really dangerous, it wrecked every Uranium separation centrifuge in my house, all zero of them.

You're not trying to enrich uranium.

Beyond that, I don't think it damaged Iran all that much and by now I assume Iran is monitoring frequencies of its siemen controllers by independent means.

Considering that it seems like Stuxnet had been inhabiting their C&C computers for a long time and it had boosted the failure rate of centrifuges tremendously, I'd say it did considerable physical damage. The time and energy wasted on buying new centrifuges, installing them, and, simultaneously, trying to figure out what was wrong with them was enormous.

Not to mention the fact that Iran basically scrapped every piece of hardware that was associated with its nuclear program in an effort to rid themselves of the virus. That's a lot of money (and time) down the drain.

And at the end of the article, there are still two modules remaining in stuxnet to be examined and inspected, but first they have to break their encryption.

The last question in my mind is can and will stuxnet be traced back to the code authors? And will the international community classify such future attacks as a war crime.

The United States already classifies such an attack as an act of war. They're not going to be able to trace it, but it's pretty obvious who was involved.

 

[Binarycow]

wonder what other nations whom we (I'm sure we had our hand in it and that's fine with me. Better than starting another war over Iran nuke program) deem as rivals politically or economically have been doing about their nuclear programs since stuxnet. I can't imagine their nuke engineers have been sleeping that well since last year from the paranoia of stuxnet. If people could penetrate a closely guarded nuke program, electric and gas system grids should be a piece of cake. Imagine the chaos level if a couple of mega-metropolises have their utility system grids knocked out for a couple of weeks.

 

[ProfJohn]

Yup stuxnet is really dangerous, it wrecked every Uranium separation centrifuge in my house, all zero of them.

Beyond that, I don't think it damaged Iran all that much and by now I assume Iran is monitoring frequencies of its siemen controllers by independent means.

And at the end of the article, there are still two modules remaining in stuxnet to be examined and inspected, but first they have to break their encryption.

The last question in my mind is can and will stuxnet be traced back to the code authors? And will the international community classify such future attacks as a war crime.

Sounds to me like you actually WANT Iran to have nukes...

 

[ThePresence]

And will the international community classify such future attacks as a war crime.

A war CRIME? Do you even know what that is?

 

[Modelworks]

It was probably smuggled in by an employee. Flash drives are small, if you want to get one in, you will.

No you will not in a properly run facility. Nuclear facilities in the USA are so strict on what is on the premises you can't even bring things to work and store them in your locker, some don't even allow things to be stored in the cars in the parking lot. A new employee walked into a control room with a coffee cup and it had to be reported to the NRC. No beverages are allowed . A flash drive wouldn't work if it was brought in because there are no usb connections open to the workers, there are no ports of any kind open to workers. If maintenance is needed and a port required it is done with one person supervising, one person doing the work, and one security personnel observing.

With things like nuclear products if there is even a small chance something can cause harm a rule is put in place. If they were allowing flash drives to plug in and change code they deserved what they got.

 

[Binarycow]

No you will not in a properly run facility. Nuclear facilities in the USA are so strict on what is on the premises you can't even bring things to work and store them in your locker, some don't even allow things to be stored in the cars in the parking lot. A new employee walked into a control room with a coffee cup and it had to be reported to the NRC. No beverages are allowed . A flash drive wouldn't work if it was brought in because there are no usb connections open to the workers, there are no ports of any kind open to workers. If maintenance is needed and a port required it is done with one person supervising, one person doing the work, and one security personnel observing.

With things like nuclear products if there is even a small chance something can cause harm a rule is put in place. If they were allowing flash drives to plug in and change code they deserved what they got.

what if all 3 were bought?

 

[Modelworks]

what if all 3 were bought?

I guess it could happen but it isn't likely. To get these kind of jobs they send out people to talk to your neighbors, friends, etc. It is one of the higher security clearances. The kind of background check where they bring up things like 'why were you late for class so many times in 8th grade ?"

 

[Lemon law]

I guess it could happen but it isn't likely. To get these kind of jobs they send out people to talk to your neighbors, friends, etc. It is one of the higher security clearances. The kind of background check where they bring up things like 'why were you late for class so many times in 8th grade ?"

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Tell us again Modelworks how well it worked for the USA in the case of Aldrich Ames.

 

[BeauJangles]

No you will not in a properly run facility. Nuclear facilities in the USA are so strict on what is on the premises you can't even bring things to work and store them in your locker, some don't even allow things to be stored in the cars in the parking lot. A new employee walked into a control room with a coffee cup and it had to be reported to the NRC. No beverages are allowed . A flash drive wouldn't work if it was brought in because there are no usb connections open to the workers, there are no ports of any kind open to workers. If maintenance is needed and a port required it is done with one person supervising, one person doing the work, and one security personnel observing.

With things like nuclear products if there is even a small chance something can cause harm a rule is put in place. If they were allowing flash drives to plug in and change code they deserved what they got.

Right, that's in America.

Evidently in Iran, things are a lot different. First, they're relying on Russian contractors (for the most part) to build these facilities and those guys are building the infrastructure from the ground up. The theory about Stuxnet's spread is that the NSA / Israel initially seeded the laptops of these contractors with the virus, either through hacking or through a bought person. Eventually, one of those guys unknowingly plugged an infected USB drive into the internal network, and Stuxnet was in.

The thing that blows my mind about it is that they either hacked or figured out how to fake the signature certificates. That isn't easy.

 

[Lemon law]

To BeauJangles,

I will not per say disagree with you, but what good does it do for anyone to kick problems another few years down the road?

 

[Binarycow]

patience is a virtue. Maybe we had other plans in the pipe and needed a couple years of delay for them to come to fruition and stuxnet gave us that.

 

[Spikesoldier]

carried out by the mossad

yeah i remember that thread