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STUXNET
When we hear the word Stuxnet, we believe this to be one of the first incidents involving the term "Cyber Warfare". As the term Cyber War is still not exactly defined, we know that in the present day, cyber attacks are on the rise and are constantly happening around the world. The cyber domain introduces a new attack vector for military war. The event of Stuxnet brings people into perspective of the logical cyber and computer realms affecting the actual physical world. Although the events of Stuxnet are highly debatable because we don't know the true origins of the Stuxnet programming itself, we can come to the conclusion that cyber attacks using advanced persistent threats from state based organizations are very possible and are happening every day. The theory of Stuxnet is the belief that this worm was created by a highly organized team, which was probably funded by a government, and its target was specific SCADA systems based in IRAN in attempts to stop its nuclear facilities. We should be aware of the possibility of more advanced types of cyber attacks in the near future and Stuxnet is a great example for us to prepare for future cyber conflicts. Throughout this paper, I will be covering about Stuxnet's discovery and evolution, the operation of the Stuxnet worm, events leading up and causing the Stuxnet program being created, and my personal analysis of this event. There are many resources from experts analyzing the Stuxnet event and program at which we can look to as guidance and knowledge about the most important worm in malware history.
STUXNET's Discovery and Evolution
As the timeline for Stuxnet is still being researched, we understand that the main Stuxnet code was discovered around June 2010, by a security com...
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...Stuxnet was like a marksman type of program by attacking systems only containing that important file and leaves systems without those programmable logic controllers unharmed. This is completely different to our usual internet malware that attacks all computers it infects, but damage in cost is vastly lower. I personally identify Stuxnet as an the highest level of cyber attacks as this is most likely as nationally funded project with attributes of being an advanced persistent threat until the target is found and destroyed. After Stuxnet, we still should be prepared of variations and evolutions of malware because of Stuxnet's successor, Flame, which carried similar codes that were contained in Stuxnet. I think Stuxnet is the first incident of possible cyber warfare and we should be preparing for the future where more cyber attacks like this could realistically happen.
At this juncture, it may be somewhat difficult to accept the proposition that a threat to the telecommunications grid, both wired and wireless, in the United States could potentially be subject to a catastrophic cyber attack. After careful research on the subject, it appears the potentiality of an event of such magnitude, which either disrupts one or the other grids for a long period or destroys either, is both theoretically and realistically impossible. It may be that proponents—those who advance such theories—equate such “doomsday” scenarios as if a cyber attack would or could be of the same magnitude as a conventional or nuclear military strike. Terms such as “cyber Pearl Harbor,” “cyber 9/11” and “cyber Vietnam” have been used to describes potential catastrophic cyber attacks and yet, “Though many have posited notions on what a ‘real’ cyber war would be like, we lack the understanding of how such conflicts will be conducted and evolve.” (Rattray & Healey, 2010, p. 77). Yet, the U.S. government continues to focus on such events, as if the plausibility of small-scale cyber attacks were not as pressing.
Mandiant is an information security company which deals with the advanced threat detections and response solutions. It has investigated various computer security breaches, the major security breaches are attributed to advanced threat actors referred to as the “Advanced Persistent Threat” (APT). APT1 is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in China, it has stolen the large amount of confidential data from 141 organizations all over the world. This report was released on 18 February 2013, provided evidences of APT1 group identity, time line and details of attack infrastructure, economic espionage, commands, and its modus operandi.
Cyber physical systems are the computers and networks that monitor, interact, and control some physical systems. In modern industrial nations, these systems are commonplace controlling our electrical grid, telecommunication, healthcare, water supply, transportation, manufacturing, and financial institutions. These systems will continue to become more integrated and our society will continue to be more and more dependent on them, this dependency on cyber physical system is what makes them and countries such as the United States a target for
Dillon Beresford saw Stuxnet as a challenge because he wanted to see if it was possible for a single individual to pull off an attack on a similar scale as Stuxnet that could disrupt industrial control systems. Due to the sophisticated nature of the attack, which used four separate zero-day vulnerabilities, and stolen digital certificates to craft and disguise a complex piece of malware that targeted Siemens SIMATIC Step 7 PLCs, Stuxnet was assumed to be the work of a nation-state. Surely a nation-state might have at its disposal the time and money needed to discover, or otherwise acquire these zero-day vulnerabilities, as well as the man power needed to use these flaws to compile and disguise such a clever cyberattack. An individual on the other hand would never be able to accomplish such an attack, or have such a high level understanding of the interworking of the control systems at the Natanz uranium enrichment facilities. Or so it was thought. Dillon Beresford was intrigued by the assumption that only a nation-state could pull off such a
National and International Security is a sum of the actions taken by countries and other organizations that can guarantee the safety and well being of their population. It is vital for a nation to pre-emptively discover what issues could affect their security, and take action to prevent any detrimental or harmful events from happening. With the development of technology and the transition into a more technologically savvy society, cyber security has become one of the most prevalent and important economic and national security issues that the United States will come to face.
Many nations in the world - the United States, China, Russia, Iran, Germany, and more- use cyber warfare as a method of conducting sabotage and espionage. Nations, such as China and Russia, use espionage in order to prevent their economy and their military technology from falling behind by stealing advanced nations’ technology. Other nations, including Israel and Iran, focus on sabotaging other nations to cripple them, by sending malwares that destroy important data on the system, from advancing their technology and costing them a decent amount of money due to repairs. Another popular cyber attack used, mainly with hacktivist, government- sympathetic groups not owned by the government, and nations less advanced in technology, is Denial-of-service, or DoS. DoS is used to hinder the target’s website and other things that are maintained by computers by making it unavailable to intended users. People argue there are no benefits for cyber warfare due to its potential destructive powers and instant process of destruction. While other people-looking from a different view find that cyber warfare does have its benefits. They argue that an important benefit is that cyber warfare takes place in cyber space meaning that it does not physically harm people. They also argue that cyber warfare draws the awareness of the nation on the ever increasing dangers of cyber warfare and forces the government to set up stronger cyber security to fend off international attacks, which also help protect the government from internal hackers. It also creates more jobs for hackers, who use their knowledge to increase the security instead of harm it. Although cyber warfare produces damaging effects on a nation, in the long run, it crea...
A cyber attack has the potential to create extreme economic damage that is out of proportion to the low cost of initiating the attack. A successful cyber attack targets vulnerable computers, forcing them to malfunction or become disabled, whereby businesses, financial institutions, medical institutions and government agencies are not able to use them.
Not a long ago, technological innovation was making its baby steps into our lifestyle. There was never a major talk on cybersecurity, even though the idea was present. Progress in technology have brought new ideas and innovations that have attracted, in turn, malicious and criminal practices; with this fast paced world we live in, we cannot afford to put our plans and goals on hold in order to deal with the problem. Today, it’s fair to say that we are all trying to catch up with the pace of technological advancement, and that is a difficult thing to accomplish, due to how fast and how complex the field has grown to be. It’s the same story in the case of cybersecurity, where we seem to be forced to react, rather act. At some point, it seemed like the cyberwar was left to the IT industries organizations to handle, until many more companies have been attracted to the technology world, due to various reasons, including competition and their respective market growth, an observation confirmed by Judith H. Germano (2014): “With time and experience (and even more alarming news report), more companies are becoming aware of, and realizing they need to address, cybersecurity concerns on a proactive basis” (p. 7). Nowadays, the society is more connected than ever, making it a target for criminals more than ever, and it requires a collective effort to achieve Information Security
In today’s day and age, cyberattacks are becoming more prominent and effective in gaining intelligence, stealing private information and causing widespread personal and governmental concern. Many people have heard the term cyberattack before, but most do
When you think of the word virus's nuclear weapons does not usually come to mind, but, in 2009, engineers working for the U.S. government built the first virus to disrupt nuclear development in Iran. Stuxnet was developed in January 2009 in the form of a thumb drive to attack Iran's uranium plants. The Stuxnet virus is by far the most influential virus and changed the view cyber-attacks in the future.
Olender, Michael. “Keeping Pace with Cyber Power, Defense, and Warfare.” Journal of International and Global Studies 6.2 (2015): 55+. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
Unequivocally speaking, the threat of a cyber-attack has become one of the most critical domestic and national security challenges we face as a nation today. Infrastructures supporting government operations are ...
The Defense Department made an admission of the first major cyber attack upon its systems in August 2010. It was revealed that the attack actually took place in 2008 and was accomplished byplacing a malicious code into the flash drive of a U.S. military laptop. “The code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital breachhead.” (2) This quote , attributed to then Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III , is just part of the shocking revelations that were disclosed in his speech made on July 14, 2011. Lynn said that...
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