Amazing!
...a suave and very sophisticated secret computer worm, a jumble of code called Stuxnet, which in the last year has not only crippled Iran's nuclear program but has caused a major rethinking of computer security around the globe.
Intelligence agencies, computer security companies and the nuclear industry have 
been trying to analyze the worm since it was discovered in June by a Belarus-based company that was doing business in Iran. And what they've all found, says Sean McGurk, the Homeland Security Department's acting director of national cyber security and communications integration, is a “game changer.” The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus. Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm 
that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The target was seemingly impenetrable; for security reasons, it lay several stories underground and was not connected to the World Wide Web. And that meant Stuxnet had to act as sort of a computer cruise missile: As it made its passage through a set of unconnected computers, it had to grow and adapt to security measures and other changes until it reached one that could bring it into the nuclear facility. When it ultimately found its target, it would have to secretly manipulate it until it was so compromised it ceased normal functions. And finally, after the job was done, the worm would have to destroy itself without leaving a trace. That is what we are learning happened at Iran's nuclear facilities -- both at Natanz, which houses the centrifuge arrays used for processing uranium into nuclear fuel, and, to a lesser extent, at Bushehr, Iran's nuclear power plant. At Natanz, for almost 17 months, Stuxnet quietly worked its way into the system and targeted a specific component -- the frequency converters made by the German equipment manufacturer Siemens that regulated the speed of the spinning centrifuges used to create nuclear fuel. The worm then took control of the speed at which the centrifuges spun, making them turn so fast in a quick burst that they would be damaged but not destroyed. And at the same time, the worm masked that change in speed from being discovered at the centrifuges' control panel. At Bushehr, meanwhile, a second secret set of codes, which Langner called “digital warheads,” targeted the Russian-built power plant's massive steam turbine. (continue reading at Fox NewsY)
You really need to read the entire article, step by step on how the worm worked. The big question of course is ... who did it? Who created it and who set if loose?
... Whoever made the worm had a full day to eliminate all traces of the worm that might lead us them,” Eric Byres, a computer security expert who has examined the Stuxnet. “No hacker could have done that.”
... (despite infecting more than 100,000 computers it has only done damage at Natanz,) the enormous amount of work that went into it—Microsoft estimated that it consumed 10,000 man days of labor-- and about what the worm knew, the clues narrowed the number of players that have the capabilities to create it to a handful.
“This is what nation-states build, if their only other option would be to go to war,” Joseph Wouk, an Israeli security expert wrote.
Byres is more certain. “It is a military weapon,” he said...
Concensus says that no single Western intelligence agency had the skills to pull this off alone ... that a consortium of intelligence agencies worked together to create Stuxnet, but Israel seems to be the first choice to receive credit in my book. As the work is studied interesting words etc are found embedded: the word '“Myrtus” embedded in the code and argued that it was a reference to Esther, the biblical figure who saved the ancient Jewish state from the Persians. But computer experts say "Myrtus" is more likely a common reference to “My RTUS,” or remote terminal units.' and another common computer language reference, but this one is misspelled. Instead of saying “DEADFOOT,” a term stolen from pilots meaning a failed engine, this one reads “DEADFOO7.” Yes, OO7 has returned -- as a computer worm. Stuxnet. Shaken, not stirred.'
Just delicious, isn't it?
Non-Council Submissions
Imagine if this was leaked on wikileaks before it got it's chance to slow down Iran's nuclear nightmare. Would Assange then be a terrorist?
Posted by: GoneWithTheWind | December 15, 2010 at 05:31 PM
GWTW,
Just imagine what these agencies are going to be doing WITH WikiLeaks. ;o)
Posted by: R.J. Godlewski | December 15, 2010 at 07:05 PM
Years from now Stuxnet could be seen as the first successful use of digital warfare.
Posted by: Intellicept3 | December 16, 2010 at 02:13 AM
Lots to like here...a virus that eats Islamofascist computer systems intended for odious purpose. Sounds like Nobel Peace Prize material to me.
Posted by: Skunkfeathers | December 16, 2010 at 04:43 AM