** Caution Warranted ***

This just hit my e-mail InBox from ZDNet:

Stuxnet: A possible attack scenario

And in case you don't already know about Stuxnet:

Stuxnet is a Windows-specific computer worm first discovered in June 2010 by VirusBlokAda, a security firm based in Belarus.

"Forewarned is forearmed."
-- Treatises of Fistula (c. 1425) by J. Arderne

 

It was designed (probably by Israelis) to go after the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran. Probably already completed its mission.

Code is heavily encrypted, so unlikely any script-kiddies wanna-be teenage hackers will be able to recycle it for their juvenile purposes.

 

PLC-controlled machinery is becoming easier to hack every day; the need for fast turnover from one project to the next invariably results in someone cutting corners somewhere. Simple miscommunication from one admin team to the next can also allow for a breach of security as well; this becomes the first step (as usual, it's some form of hacking the wetware) in a multistage attack of this sort.

Do I believe we're going to have Terminators rolling off of assembly lines meant to produce life-size dancing Mickey dolls? No. But remember... the first successful Logic Bomb (after which the phenomenon was named) was deployed almost 30 years ago by our own CIA in response to KGB theft of proprietary control software; it resulted in "...the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space..."

I am not nearly as worried about potential attacks on nuclear facilities as many authors of inflammatory internet articles are; the levels of security and redundant safeguards and human supervision involved make me much more concerned about simple neglect than espionage. (See photo & link)

However, I sure would hate to be living next door to any of thousands of US plastic manufacturing plants that happened to be sabotaged like that Siberian gas pipeline...

Ohio Nuclear Engineer Convicted of Lying About Cracks in Reactor

mnem
Can you say BOOM! boys and girls?