Stuxnet worm designed to sabotage nuclear plants

Having read such a headline, I would have thought that it was an attempt to attract the attention of a “passing by” reader - but no, such a heading corresponds to the content of the article in its entirety. The fact is that the information security specialist from Germany, Ralph Lengner, subjected the worm to a detailed analysis. The results of the analysis are very impressive - looking ahead, I’ll say that this same Längner suggests that the creation of the worm may be the whole state, and not some kind of hacker student or their group.

Of course, often one talented student can do something that entire research institutes have been working on for a long time without getting a result. But here, most likely, is not the case. Let me remind you that Stuxnet is primarily intended for PCs with Siemens software, which is usually used in various industrial process control systems. And this does not apply to small enterprises, but to entire nuclear plants. The Stuxnet code contains a section that, theoretically, could allow attackers to gain access to the same control systems. Stuxnet is designed to attack enterprise management components (SCADA), which are used in chemical, nuclear and other large (largest) enterprises.

Lengner is not unfounded - having made such a statement at one of the conferences on information security at work, he also published a detailed analysis of sections of the virus code on his own website . Moreover, the "security guard" did this last week, although it became known about it only now.

“Stuxnet is a 100% targeted attack that seeks to disrupt conventional industrial processes in the ordinary, rather than virtual, world,” says Ralph Lengner.

The three largest US information security experts, including Michael Assante, agree with Langner's theory. Until now, the code of the worm has not been studied enough, it is too complicated, but work continues.

Interestingly, experts agreed that the Iranian Bushehr nuclear plant is the main goal for this worm - in principle, it is easy to guess who is eager to destroy such an enterprise in this country. True, the worm is found all over the world, and not just in Iran, so it can be called extremely effective. On a PC, Stuxnet penetrates through the use of three vulnerabilities (in Windows), of which only one has been closed since June.

Security experts also call Stuxnet the first virtual super-weapon designed to destroy real objects.

Via Dvice.com