Discussion of Stuxnet worm and it's impact

[tomyrush]

Really interesting in depth analysis of what the Stuxnet worm accomplished and how it destroyed Iran’s nuclear program

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/ ... latestnews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Tom

[StuartR]

I found that Fox News article absolutely astonishing.

I have previously read reports of Stuxnet created by the people at Symantec who actually analysed the worm*, and their conclusions were much more tentative than these. They do provide some evidence that the target of the worm might have been in Iran, but the word nuclear does not appear anywhere in the analysis and there is no information at all about whether or not the attack has been successful. The only comment they make about the target is:

Stuxnet is a threat targeting a specific industrial control system likely in Iran, such as a gas pipeline or power plant. The ultimate goal of Stuxnet is to sabotage that facility by reprogramming programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to operate as the attackers intend them to, most likely out of their specified boundaries

I suspect that most of this article is complete fantasy with no factual basis.

* You can read the Symantec analysis by following links from Stuxnet breakthrough to the updated paper.

[HansV]

That a FoxNews article is "complete fantasy with no factual basis" is hardly reason for astonishment...

[StuartR]

That a FoxNews article is "complete fantasy with no factual basis" is hardly reason for astonishment...

I was trying to be polite!

[John Gray]

I suspect they operate in Daily Mail-mode...

[Claude]

Some people say !

[tomyrush]

Sorry guys - I wouldn't trust symantec wwith anything - they destroyed an earlier system of mine.

I have read enough other analysis to trust the Fox analysis.
Particularly from a personal friend in US couterintelligence.

Tom

[StuartR]

...I have read enough other analysis to trust the Fox analysis...

Please provide links to this other analysis, so that I can read it for myself.

[StuartR]

There is a fairly balanced article about Stuxnet in PCPro magazine. This says, amongst other things...

...
Olli Heinonen, who quit as the head of the UN nuclear inspections team in August, said there had been a spate of equipment failures in Iran in the wake of the virus, which was first discovered in June this year.

According to figures from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran's arsenal of working high-speed centrifuges that are required to produce enriched uranium had fallen from 3,936 to 3,772 in just a few months.

“Stuxnet could be one of the reasons,” Heinonen told Reuters, although he admitted the were no facts to rule out coincidence. “There is no evidence that it was, but there has been quite a lot of malfunctioning centrifuges."
...

[hlewton]

That article is amazing. I kind of hope it targets North Korea next.