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Stuxnet Worm May Have Targeted Iranian Reactor
yuna49 writes "Analysis of the Stuxnet worm suggests its target might have been Iran's nuclear program. "Last week Ralph Langner, a well-respected expert on industrial systems security, published an analysis of the Stuxnet worm, which targets Siemens software systems, and suggested that it may have been used to sabotage Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor. A Siemens expert, Langner simulated a Siemens industrial network and then analyzed the worm's attack. Experts had first thought that Stuxnet was written to steal industrial secrets, but Langner found something quite different. The worm actually looks for very specific Siemens settings — a kind of fingerprint that tells it that it has been installed on a very specific Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) device — and then it injects its own code into that system."
There's one non-secular country in the world that is famous for it's disregard for anyone but itself and its fundamentalist religious belief in their own specialness in the eyes of their own god, which they believe justifies their evil actions.
The truth is some evil people will do anything for wealth and power.
Nope, Israel.
The Saudis, UAE or Qatar have strong interests in Iran not going nuclear, but military computer science stuff is going to be Israel, Russia, China or the US, my money is on Israel in this one.
Ugh, what a terrible article. There's no firm conclusions at all, just mindless speculation. Here's some gems: "The only thing I can say is that it is something designed to go bang" and "'If I had to guess what it was, yes that's a logical target' he said, 'but that's just speculation'"
This could be an interesting topic, but unfortunately, it is turned into a pointless article spewing wild guesses. And the findings are to be submitted in a closed door security meeting? WTF? I guess we'll never know.
I have programmed many PLC's in my day, but unfortunately not Siemens. Does anyone have experience with siemens that can comment on the mysterious operational block 35?
Siemens PLCs are everywhere. Same with GE and others. They run everything from nuke plants to little benchtop lathes and aerospace applications. How this person decided that it *had* to be the Iranian nuke plant baffles me.
How does he know that it wasn't targeted at various military targets? Iranian medium and short range missile installations also come to mind. Does he *have* the Siemens PLC configuration from the nuke plant in his hot little hands? Or does he even have the model numbers?
Reading TFA, no.
Peterson believes that Bushehr was possibly the target. "If I had to guess what it was, yes that's a logical target," he said. "But that's just speculation."
Well, there you go. Nothing to see here.
That's not to say that actual cyber-warfare is not happening, but to come out with wild-ass speculation and present it as newsworthy reminds me of Fox "News" and the rest of the Murdoch "empire."
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BMO
Definitely. Using more conventional power generation technologies, they are a target for aerial bombing. If a nuclear power plant were to be bombed, any sort of disaster might occur making the bomber look extremely evil. (The only way they could hope to get away with it is to make the bombing look as if it came from Iran itself.) In any case, enemies would be less inclined to attack a nuclear power plant as opposed to conventional ones.
As to who is responsible for the targeted malware? I can't imagine.
That's a very idealistic view. There are several people who would argue that destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities is actually protecting lives, not destroying them. Of course, that all depends on Iranian government intentions. But considering the many discussions held in Iran about destroying Israel, a world without Israel, etc, it's not exactly a stretch to imagine that Iran would use its nuclear capability to attack Israel. It's also not difficult to imagine that Israel would attack Iran's nuclear program, as they have in the past with Iraq and Syria. Iran's program would be the first operational Arabic nuclear program that hasn't been destroyed by Israel before becoming operational.
Israel does not live in an idealistic world, from their point of view they can't afford to not attack an enemy nuclear installation just because there's a guy there sweeping the floor who may get killed.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Brilliant - let's get one up on the Iranians by messing with their nuclear reactor controls! What could possibly go wrong?
Maybe less than would go wrong if Iran got the bomb?
I don't know how likely that is, but I'm guessing whoever did this probably has a different calculus than I do for weighing the two, like (Iranian civilian deaths)= 0.1(own civilian deaths). So from their perspective, probably not much could go wrong.
So some innocent people should die for the sake of crimes that might be commited in the future?
That's the same bullshit excuse used to justify nuking Japan. Most Americans are completely stupid. They claim that nuclear weapons are terrible and should never be used and anyone who uses it is evil, but the minute someone brings up the fact that America is the only country to use it, they suddenly backtrack and claim that it was used to "save lives" based on military estimates.
Assuming that the Wikipedia article is correct, Israel has had nuclear capabilities (~20 bombs) during the '73 war and did not use it, even though the Arab military success at the beginning of the war was definitely more than "very little provocation".
Yeah, you've got a idealogical lunatic running the country (I think we've heard that joke before) but he'd be gone by now if the mass media didn't think that MJ's funeral was more important than protestors being gunned down by the Iranian goverment.
Right. Because the US being all concerned about politics in Iran will bring about political change in Iran? Doesn't everyone get all antsy when the US takes interest in foreign politics? And isn't Iran among the least likely to take political cues from the US (or the rest of the MJ-living world, for that matter)?
Seriously, wanting to persue peaceful nuclear power isn't an issue. Hell, if they wanted warheads they could just BUY them.
Really now. And who's going to sell them to Iran? Always better to have your own means rather than be dependent on others. The idea that this is all about peaceful application is still very suspect.
That's because it does. You just need to be a *little* slyer. (Not much.)
This is one point where it really does matter what the target OS is. If your USB is vfat, then you can't have allow execute set to true. But if you use a properly targeted file system (say ext3), then you can set execution permissions. Or even just make it a tar.gz file, and when it's expanded, it ends up with execute permissions set. So you open a jpeg, and actually execute a script that opens the jpeg while executing something else in the background.
(Allowing tar files so set the execute permission is a big weakness...and a vast convenience. But that should require running a separate script or chmod with root permissions.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
You sound like a fundamentalist Christian wack job who is just as dangerous as the Muslims that you seem to have a problem with. Given that we're close to or past Peak Oil at this point, does it really seem so far fetched that the Iranians want a different energy source? Even if they are building a bomb, they are a long way from having a delivery system. Even if they get a delivery system, they are unlikely to use it for the reasons stated.
Last I checked there are a bunch of Fundamendalist Christians in the United States armed forces. Does that mean that we're about to start the rapture to bring about the second coming of Christ? What makes you think that the the Arabs are any more likely to do so in the Middle East?
You have to realize that what leaders say in public to appease their people, and the actions that they take in private are often times very different.
Get a subscription to Stratfor. Do some research.
That last passages describes exactly what jihadi martyrs hope to achieve by dying. On earth they live in a world full of suffering, violence, fear, and humiliation, which all goes away once they die and gets replaced with grace and paradise. Modern Christians do not live in the same hostile environment as Muslims do.
Except, I guess, for the modern Christians who live in the Middle East? What does "the same hostile environment" mean, anyway? Are you implying that every Muslim interprets the Koran the same way you -- a non-Muslim -- have chosen to? There are Muslims living right down the street from me who have absolutely nothing in common with your "jihadi martyrs". I could go over to their place right now and borrow a cup of sugar. Likewise, a good friend's cousins live in Iran right now. They are nice, pretty girls who like skiing.
Or are you implying that whackjob Christian fundamentalists never harmed anyone? Timothy McVeigh said he was at peace with his God, and I'm pretty sure he didn't mean Allah.
But I think we're getting closer to the real foundation of your posts today, which is that A.) that you hate Islam, probably because you're a fundamentalist Christian yourself or close to it; B.) you therefore hate Arabs because you believe all Muslims are Arabs or Arab-controlled; and C.) that these beliefs do, I'm afraid, make you a bigot.
Breakfast served all day!