What Is The Stuxnet Virus Affect Nuclear Weapon?

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.

The virus is defined as a piece of code that can copy itself and typically has a detrimental effect, such as corrupting the system or destroying data. At that time viruses were not known to be used to attack countries, most viruses were motivated by money and moral beliefs. In the early 2000s Iran was gaining nuclear power and the U.S. knew they were in the wrong hands. As the rise of viruses grew the CIA knew they could take advantage of cyber-attacks. Couple years later they had a lethal virus capable of damaging uranium plants all over Iran.

The creator of this impressive virus was not just a single person but a whole team of cyber engineers working for the U.S.

government. This virus was then converted in the form of a thumb drive. The government investigated other businesses associated with the uranium plants helping develop nuclear weapons, through this they were able to transmit the virus into their computers which later spread through to the uranium plants. In a matter of weeks, almost all of Iran's uranium plants were infected. The Stuxnet virus was created to spin centrifuges out of control in the uranium plants and it did just that setting Iran’s nuclear development back and costing a lot of

money.

Sometime in 2009, someone launched another completely new kind of weapon. But unlike any other malware before it, it was capable of causing real-world, physical damage. It would later come to be known as Stuxnet, the first-ever malware to attack the real world. Stuxnet is still making new progress with the U.S. government proceeding to advance the viruses capabilities and start a new attack. The attack was so well executed that it went undetected for months in Iran. This deadly virus caused devastating effects on the uranium plants centrifuges spinning them out of control. Although the virus set them back Iran is still making more progress on their weapons as we speak. To prevent this the U.S. are joining with other countries to disrupt their progress in any way they can. Without the Stuxnet virus, Iran could have had nuclear weapons and lead to some major war.

In conclusion, this dangerous virus created a whole new path of destruction and war techniques. Stuxnet will always be the first and now others know what to look out for. It showed how you can never be too careful when it comes to thumb drives. This attack for good also sprouted some ideas for malicious intent with this power. This further shows how dangerous viruses are in the form of cyber war. This could just be the start, what do you think could be next?