Cyber Warfare: Stuxnet, a "Secret Agent" Defying Imagination!

"The construction of the worm [Stuxnet] 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."

So says Ed Barnes in an article published 11/26/10 on FoxNews.com, and entitled: "Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions."

This is a whodunit of the highest caliber. There is much being reported about the computer worm Stuxnet, but have reporters been given the "real skinny" or are there many secrets that are being withheld that may never be learned?

And, of course, there is still only speculation about the origin of Stuxnet. Who all was involved - Israel, the United States, Russia, possibly Germany?

One of the comments left on the article by Ed Barnes is very thought-provoking:

"Very impressive. Constructing this worm required in-depth knowledge in several areas: how nuclear reactors operate, different components of this particular nuclear facility that had been manufactured by different companies, IT systems, the international computer security industry, and possession of specific pieces of software from multiple companies. For months I have been wondering why Israel did not bomb Iran's nuclear facility; now I know why. My hat is off to the worm's developers, most likely American or Israeli intelligence agencies."

If you haven't read about Stuxnet, you will find the article by Ed Barnes to be highly interesting.

Here are some other articles that provide information and/or different points of view:

Stuxnet (Wikipedia.org)
Sneaky Stuxnet Secrets (StrategyPage.com)
Symantec to Congress: Stuxnet is 'wake-up call' (cnet News)
Stuxnet researchers cautious about Iran's admission of centrifuge issues (Computerworld)
Was Stuxnet Built to Attack Iran's Nuclear Program? (PCWorld)

Barnes includes this in his article: "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."

It is all a bit "woo woo" to me. I believe we haven't heard the end about Stuxnet, but for now anyway, it appears that the good guys won and the bad guys lost. That's enough to make me smile, even if I don't have the slightest clue about how it all happened!

Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/