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Stuxnet Still Out of Control At Iran Nuclear Sites
Velcroman1 writes "Iran's nuclear program is still in chaos despite its leaders' adamant claim that they have contained the computer worm that attacked their facilities, cybersecurity experts in the US and Europe say. Last week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after months of denials, admitted that the worm had penetrated Iran's nuclear sites, but he said it was detected and controlled. The second part of that claim, experts say, doesn't ring true. Owners of several security sites have discovered huge bumps in traffic from Iran, as the country tries to deal with Stuxnet. 'Our traffic from Iran has really spiked,' said a corporate officer who asked that neither he nor his company be named. 'Iran now represents 14.9 percent of total traffic, surpassing the United States with a total of 12.1 percent.'"
...patch Tuesday is coming. ;)
Unlike those kids at Anonymous, the perpetrators of stuxnet are showing who are the real hacktivists.
Targeted precise strike on Iran's nuclear capabilities, this is a bigger win for freedom and security in the free world and anything wikileaks or their supporters could dream of doing.
I commend these hackers for slowing down the evil Iranian government's nuclear ambitions.
I think this attack just shows the difference that good engineering can make. Most worms out there are relatively unsophisticated, or are developed by people with limited means to pull off quick scams.
Stuxnet shows what a truly determined adversary can do. One who knows your internal processes. One who understands your industry-specific software - the stuff nobody outside the industry ever touches. One who has a large team of talented programmers, carefully designing and building the attack. One who has access to government resources - the ability to tap communications lines, inject traffic, etc. One who is funded strategically - they don't want to hold your business for ransom for $1M, they want your $100B company to collapse so that one they favor can take over, or whatever.
The software out there that runs on intranets around the world is some of the most insecure stuff you'll ever see. It rarely gets subjected to serious attack, and the vulnerabilities aren't evident to the average corporate IT guy who is just doing basic due-diligence. Your average PHB doesn't want to pay for testing that will actually uncover serious flaws - they want the system to look good to their customers and have the right bells and whistles - and pricetag.
We'll see more of these attacks in the future - count on it...
Ahmadinejad's speech needs to be heard from the perspective of knowing something of Persian culture. We tend to think we understand people by what they say and in this case and, frankly in most cases we do not when Iranians speak. For example: If someone dies, it is considered not polite to just say "Shogi is dead". You break it gradually. So on the first inquiry, "Shogi is feeling unwell" is the reply, then, "Shogi took a turn for the worse" , then "Shogi has passed". Also, it is considered dishonorable for a man to admit ignorance. This makes it very hard to teach new ideas in Iran. Speak to a Persian and you are met with "Yes Yes, this I know, next thing please" The Persian culture is actually a very beautiful thing full of warm people, but they are NOT American People. They are a seperate culture. when Ahmadinejad announces ____ fill blank. we believe him, Persians think "there goes Dinner Jacket again.."
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
If you read about how this thing works, the real payload is a rootkit for a motor drive plc built by an Iranian manufacturer and spinning in the range needed to enrich uranium. It was also targetted at the desktop software designed to program said motor drive, which is windows. If they were running Linux, I'm sure there are a few zero day sploits out there suitible for hiding a rootkit dropper. The people that made this thing had time, information, legitimate driver signing certificates, and resources. I doubt there are many platforms that can deal with such a determined attacker.
a) Everybody in Iran with a Stuxnet-infected computer is going to be trying desperately to get rid of it and everybody in Iran with a computer that they even suspect may be infected with anything is going to be trying to read up on Stuxnet. They are not going to believe that it won't harm their systems. They are going to believe that every little glitch might be Stuxnet come to steal their secrets (whether they have any or not).
b) If most of the Iranian traffic to these sites was coming from people at the the Iranian nuclear facilities studying Stuxnet there would be very little of it because there would not be all that many people assigned to such research.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Iran obviously hasn't had experience fixing their in-laws computers and are actually wasting their time trying to save their familly photos. FORMAT!
The columnist who writes for Asia Times On-line (www.atimes.com) under the name Spengler foresaw this situation last year. He noted that 95+% off the software that was being used in Iran was 'pirate-ware' from the West. He noted that there was an Iranian government-run file download site that held hundreds of popular Western software packages along with their kraks, passwords, and keygens. He predicted that this would allow viruses to run amok throughout Iran at some point in the future.
He also quotes a BBC reporter who states that almost nobody except government officials and their goon squads (and old ladies, of course) still believes in fundamental Islam in Iran. She (the BBC reporter) says that only about 2% of the population regularly go to Friday services at the mosques in Iran. And over 5% of Iranians are addicted to cheap Afghanistan heroin, the highest addiction rate in the world. Unemployment among the young is in reality over 50%. She says that Iran currently resembles the Soviet Union in the late 1980's; it's a country that will just fall apart in the next ten years if the rest of the world just leaves them alone and lets it happen.
At the time of the revolution in 1978, Iran's population was about 27 million (I remember the number quoted as 50 million at the time) and now it is over 70 million: a direct result of Khomeini's exortation for young people to -'get a-fuckin'- (in a manner of speaking) and make lots of babies. When Khomeini died that policy died also, and Iran launched a massive birth-control program. Now, the children of the revolution are having almost no babies and the birth-rate in Iran is 1.6 children per couple; one of the lowest in the world. But their remains this huge bulge in the population demographic there; all the people born in the 1980's.
They call themselves 'the burnt generation'.
If any of this is true then we shouldn't worry too much about Iran. We should never actually believe anything that they say. And we should, on an individual-to-individual basis, offer whatever assistance that we can. Nevertheless, I would recommend NOT offering any detailed technical assistance to people in Iran on any specific technological project over the web until the Iranian government stops all this 'Death To America' nonsense as offical government policy.
Thank you.
So Stuxnet chatter is still observed around the planet, including in Iran and the US. Duh.
Now how exactly does this "expert" come to the conclusion that, somehow, activity from the US etc must be from infected home PCs, yet the same from Iran must be from some seekret uranium enrichment plant, which typically wound not be connected to the internet?
Oh, my bad, forgot, this comes from ScareTV... Never mind.
No, not true.
It was targeted at a particular Siemens chipset. That chipset is used world wide and not just for centrifuges. (its already infected Iranian turbine generators).
But again, as I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, viruses and worms are built using the skeletons of other viruses and worms.
Iran will eventually figure out this tool, and tailor it to new targets. Centrifuges do not have GPS chips installed. They don't know where they are. At best the controllers that run them know a time zone and a language setting. How long will it take to adjust that?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Angry people... like you?
Hey, this is a serious "nerds at war" story. Slashdot would be remiss to not cover what might be greatest exploit of weapons grade professional hacking in world history. How long before Slashdot "friends" find themselves on opposite sides of an actual war where key infrastructure is literally exploding? Because that's exactly what those worm coders did: Blow up uranium centrifuges in militarized underground bunkers. This really is the start of a new era in the history of nerddom, and if anything, it should be getting more attention from nerds. Maybe some of the authors of that worm even have user accounts here.
When I'm a leader of a rogue state, I will not connect the control systems of my super-secret nuclear facility to any external network.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
You think the Arab nations will be so glee at the thought of a powerful Iran? In case you haven't been paying attention, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The wikileaks cables show quite clearly that Iran doesn't have much support from their Arab neighbors.
"wikileaks cables show quite clearly "
LOL....
Yes, you are right. The vast majority of Arabs actually are in favor of a strong Iran. Their propped up autocracies aren't in favor of that of course.
/.
A poll recently done in the middle east showed that 80% of folks there thought that Israel was a threat. 77% thought that the US was a threat. Far down the line 10% thought that Iran was a threat. This was the "Common People off the street" type folks.
Be nice though, just because you are right and he has been watching too much Fox News doesn't mean that should be falling off your rocking chair there. Settle down, put the coffee away and maybe listen to some soothing music for a few hours - or wait till you are at least fourteen before you keep posting to
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
If it were Canadian, it would have asked permission before installing itself. And then annoyed you by constantly telling you that it's ready to uninstall itself at any time if it's overstayed its welcome.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Simple same as the American's have LONG denied the holocaust against the natives and the concentration camps for Americans whose ancestors came from Japan. Or that those who wrote "All men are equal" really meant "White MEN, with sufficient standing, that we approve off, are equal, somewhat".
Being a cunt is not restricted to beard faces.
And really, does the US have any right to talk about the treatment of homosexuals? The republican cunts are now blocking reform of the "Do not ask, do not tell" policy until they get a tax cut for the super rich. I think we got a new arm race. Who can produce the biggest cunt in a suit.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I don't know why every time someone mentions Mossadegh he is moderated insightful. You don't need a time machine, just try to inform yourself better instead of repeating old political propaganda from the Soviet Union.
First of all, Mossadegh wasn't really that democratic at all. For instance, Wikipedia says "Realizing that the opposition would take the vast majority of the provincial seats, Mosaddegh stopped the voting as soon as 79 deputies just enough to form a parliamentary quorum had been elected."
Second, Iran was in deep economic trouble from the oil industry nationalization under Mossadegh. With or without CIA intervention, he was doomed to fall sooner or later.
Finally, if the CIA were able to manipulate foreign governments that well, they should get better results. If they succeeded in overthrowing Mossadegh then why are they unable to overthrow the Islamic government of Iran?
Divide a cake by zero. Is it still a cake?
A cake divided by zero is an infinite cake. If you can find a way to divide a cake by zero, well, CAKE FOR EVERYBODY!
Free Martian Whores!
Remember, there aren't as many true geeks are here as there are nerds who are just "teched out." That's why we have fewer good submissions like this and more stories about how to blow up stuff with a microwave or the biggest lego masterpiece ever created. :)
The C64's operating system is stored on ROM chips (which by definition can not be written to.)
How do you explain EEPROM or flash ROM? ROM is a narrow context.