Tech | November 27, 2010 | 51 comments

No Need to Bomb Iran - Nuclear Ambitions Flanked by Highly Sophisticated Worm

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

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jubal
In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond.

The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters where scientists in the clutches of an evil master are secretly building a weapon that can destroy the world. Then render that weapon harmless and escape undetected.

But in the 21st century, Bond doesn't get the call. Instead, the job is handled by 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.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-am...

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51 comments // No Need to Bomb Iran - Nuclear Ambitions Flanked by Highly Sophisticated Worm

  • sffsmessiah
    • +1
      sffsmessiah  

    • "a consortium of intelligence agencies worked together to build the cyber bomb. And he says the most likely confederates are the United States, because it has the technical skills to make the virus, Germany, because reverse-engineering Siemen’s product would have taken years without it, and Russia, because of its familiarity with both the Iranian nuclear plant and Siemen’s systems."

      yea right. skynet is now online.

    • 1 year ago
  • PzLuvHappeniz
  • RMattnerTours
  • neocongo
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  
    • neocongo:

      If Fox is so gung ho about nuking Iran then why would they post a story like this contradicting what they most want? Are you trying to say they are using reverse psychology on us?

      Also do you really think that everybody in Iran is "up to date" on their security downloads from Microsoft? Do you think the Iran government would trust Microsoft for their security?

    • 1 year ago
  • opit
    • +2
      opit  
    • Image

    • Treewolf said something profound - get what you can out of the Internet while it lasts. I have no confidence that websites will not be taken offline and information suppression instituted once again.
      You musts have noticed that the 101st Fighting Keyboarders have been spamming comment threads for years with programmed 'analysis' following the lines established by Faux News and disrupting recognition that most people do not 'buy into' reported opinions and push polls.
      Heritage sites full of interesting info have been taken down over the years for fear of government retaliation. The truly smart techs have been on this level of knowledge for years.
      Go to a place like Hong Pong or SoTT.net and you will read things not likely covered in many discussions of 'news'...because most of that is a crock...likely including this story.
      North Korea is being attacked again...and the Reich Wing is saying the job should have been finished 60 years ago. What job that might be on a country firebombed extensively I'm sure I don't know. Vietnam was not the only recipient of unimaginable violence from the air.
      And their 'menace' is a way of 'justifying' those attacks just as surely as against Iraq - r Iran.
      I've been busy...still.
      http://www.transcend.org/tms/2010/05/the-npt-and-the-nuclear-power-trap/
      http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2010/11/22-november-nato-summit-priorities-of.html
      http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2010/11/25-november-korean-context.html

    • 1 year ago
  • galwayman
    • 0
      galwayman  

    • I'd like to know that this really did the job because there is no way that Iran,the center of radical Islam,can be allowed to get nuclear bombs,they will give them to every terrorist group on the planet,and it will be used against those who resist Islamic conquest!

    • 1 year ago
  • jubal
  • Blind_Watchmaker
  • NiceN
  • Itsbatman_Durr
    • +3
      Itsbatman_Durr  

    • oh lawd this is indeed a game changer.. isreal? us? or just a random? who knows but while i applaud it on one hand so to speak, i am horrified of the possibilities on the other

    • 1 year ago
  • jubal
    • +3
      jubal  

    • We are on the verge of the day "The Earth Will Stand Still" as all the key systems are shut down. Then we will see the elite on their knees.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • jubal:

      Yes, but unfortunately we will be as well. Technology only brings truly good progress when it is used in the parameters of us not forgetting our humanity. I fear we are crossing that line.

    • 1 year ago
  • Eddie_Miller
    • +6
      Eddie_Miller  

    • Let the cyber-wars begin. Its' scary to think that someone has actually achieved this sophisticated amount of autonomy and learning/adapting abilities in a computer worm. I wonder who will be the first to take credit for it? And what's next?

    • 1 year ago
  • bbaa10
  • Progresshiv
  • JanforGore
  • CalPal
    • +4
      CalPal  

    • Wait, haven't we've seen this Stuxnet before? Hmm...

      Stuxnet
      Styxnet
      Stynet
      Skyne - AUGH!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

    • 1 year ago
  • s_peak
    • +5
      s_peak  
    • CalPal:

      You read my mind, CalPal!

      In the new age, Skynet could just send a virus back in time to take down Facebook... so that John Connor's mom would never meet his dad.

      Also... this is much more scientifically feasible, and has actually been "done" with quantum teleportation using a real virus.

      BUT... the government probably made it. I've been thinking they needed to get into the computer virus game for some time now.

    • 1 year ago
  • jubal
  • Progresshiv
  • s_peak
  • Progresshiv
  • Itsbatman_Durr
  • Progresshiv
  • AJILIVIZION
    • +9
      AJILIVIZION  

    • Computer programmers and hackers will be leading the charge into the future. Lets demolish these arbitrary institutions and systems. Lets see who will tell us the truth and keep us safe. The Baby Boomer leaders are scrambling all over the place, worried of the cyber-war that is about to break out. Everyone has been glamorizing WWIII as if it will be like any other bloody war. When the lights are turned off, and no one in your state can tell you why that is, think about how cool American tanks and jet-fighters look just rusting away on the tarmac.

      American leaders are so heavily invested in having a zombie nation of consumers. When the real cyber-war is put in to full throttle, the zombies that depend on electricity and running water will run to the FEMA camps for safety. Go ahead and blow this off as crazy. Its so much easier to do then to consider the possibilities.

    • 1 year ago
  • Dagum
    • +5
      Dagum  
    • AJILIVIZION:

      Very well said.

      The narcissistic, power hunger Baby boomer generation and its leaders won't go down without a fight though . The old power grubbers are scared to death of the internet and how it makes them irrelevant.

      Their government no longer has a monopoly on information. Without being able to control the flow of information to the populace, they can't control us and we don't need them anymore. They are going to resort to more brutal and draconian methods in the future. The "kill switch" will be the start.

    • 1 year ago
  • s_peak
    • +2
      s_peak  
    • AJILIVIZION:

      Then the FEMA camps will ration the water and food that is in short supply simply because of our destructive and toxic farming practices and water cleaning facilities, effectively bottle-necking the population to zones that they deem fit to keep alive.

      I'm with you on this one. The war of the future will look very different.

    • 1 year ago
  • s_peak
    • +4
      s_peak  
    • Dagum:

      Yup.

      I personally believe there's another holocaust coming, in the form of a man-made virus meant to "cleanse" the planet of overpopulation... followed by quarantine camps and human ovens...
      But that's just my theory. It seems like the best way to dwindle the population while scaring people shitless enough to follow any order they're given. This would also totally help a globalist agenda, because the only options are follow or die... and there's no army to attack. There are already camps in the US popping up everywhere with literally hundreds of thousands of coffins stacked outside, outfitted with giant ovens and brand new gas lines. There's video all over the internet (some of it has been taken down). I'd say that's pretty suspicious.

      At the very least, my mind is open to any possibility, I guess ?

    • 1 year ago
  • jubal
  • remanns
  • Psymoniac
  • VoyagerFilms
  • ghostofamerica
  • treewolf39
    • +3
      treewolf39  

    • Cyber terrorism. Wall street better watch out. Next we will have to worry about the computers in our cars or traffic lights in the city, or even the release of water from dams. Yep, security is a thing of the past.

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
    • +2
      artemis6  
    • treewolf39:

      Can they wipe out the bankers ? cause , that would be RICH . How about monsanto , Big oil , coal , and pharma , North Korea ? Who are these sexy naughty people ? Actually , I don't care , as long as they go after the Big guys long enough for us to pull a rabbit out of this hat ....

    • 1 year ago
  • s_peak
  • jubal
  • artemis6
  • treewolf39
    • +1
      treewolf39  
    • artemis6:

      Lets see, who is wielding the worm? My money is on Israeli intelligence or the CIA or both. Neither is out for the interests of the common good. But hey there is always a chance that old Wikileaks will pull this information out of the hat.....; wait unless the worm was slipped into THEIR bottle of mescal. Nope nothing is going to change as long as half of America still has money and jobs. Anger, and a lot of it, is about the only way to bring about change. Oh and angry people don't always make change for the best. Well fuck. I just wrote myself into depression. I need an I.V. full of good news.

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  
    • treewolf39:

      I hope it isn't CIA or Israel . What about China ? Do you think there is any connection to the Wikileaks shut down ? Is this worm how the internet will be eliminated as a corpo-facist threat ? Cause we had better come up with plan B if it is ....

    • 1 year ago
  • treewolf39
    • +1
      treewolf39  
    • artemis6:

      I am not sure if the internet can be eliminated but it can be rendered useless for anyone. The control of information will become more and more important as the plans for global control take root. I for one am getting what I can out of it while I still can. Right now we have access to incredible amounts of knowledge. Get while the getting is good. I feel very fortunate to be able to share and learn from EVERYONE on Current.

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • a619ko
  • tommic
    • +3
      tommic  

    • Laugh at the nerds if you like but it would be safe to assume that whoever devised this plan and carried it out whether it was a person or a team were at one time those nerdy kids that people made fun of. I kinda love it either way though. no pun intended

    • 1 year ago
  • Dagum
  • freecrack
  • jubal
  • freecrack
    • +2
      freecrack  
    • jubal:

      deep down i know this.
      for every great mind that exists to create so does another greater to destroy, and so on in perpituity.i was just hopefull that the internet wouldnt be subject to this.so far so good, but its not looking good now.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • jubal
    • +3
      jubal  

    • This is truly an amazing story. This worm is so sophisticated that it knew things not even the IAEA knew. It is the first truly weaponized worm.

    • 1 year ago
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