Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Epic Worm

The StuxNet worm has achieved a rare distinction, where the rumor mill is going berserk about what it is, what it does, and who is responsible.  A few other worms or viruses have achieved this, but not many.  The Morris Worm was the first, and the "Year Of The Worm" (2003) kind of achieved this collectively, but StuxNet is in an elite class.

Let's look at some of what people are saying about it:


Just because the hype is dialed up to 11 doesn't mean that the worm isn't very sophisticated, and dangerous, and that our own systems are pretty vulnerable.  They are.

But ...

This is truly State-on-State Information Warfare.  The chaos may or may not be due to the worm's spread, but chaos was clearly the goal.  There is a whiff of panic from some of the stories we hear, like how Iran is rounding a bunch of people up, and arresting them as spies.

The best analogy that I can think of is the Spanish Civil War, where the German Luftwaffe first experimented with planned, coordinated air bombardments designed to disrupt command, control, and Communications.  StuxNet is the first malware that I've seen try this.  It's likely not a total success, but it's dead certain that many people are watching it, and the reaction to it.  The next time, it'll be even more disruptive.

Epic indeed.

5 comments:

ajdshootist said...

I have no idea who planted it but i seem to feel that Israel is giggling like anything and more strength to them if they did.

TJP said...

Windows has uncorrected privilege elevation problems that aren't even acknowledged as a security issue. To the best of my knowledge, they effect the entire NT family of operating systems.

Why are these companies using a full-blown graphical desktop operating system for SCADA?

doubletrouble said...

Right.

I'm as dense as a solid cubic foot of unobtainium: a guy (Irish?), with a big screen computer, is blowing up balloons with an air compressor until they break.
That proves what, exactly?
Israeli killer codes are made of rubber?

I once new a guy from Belfast, & he had a bad stutter. This guy is damn close in the communication department...

doubletrouble said...

Uhhh, "knew"...

Bubblehead Les. said...

First World War, Second World War, Cold War, War on Terror, now the First Cyberwar. Sigh! Kind of wish we all just stuck with Swords and Axes to settle our differences. Oh well, maybe all this Worm Development will keep the Terminators at bay until I pass on to my reward.