Though never confirmed, it is theorised a double agent used a simple flash drive to infect the Natanz computer systems, which were not connected to the Internet to specifically protect it from an outside attack. "[120][121], On the same day two Iranian nuclear scientists were targeted in separate, but nearly simultaneous car bomb attacks near Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. Additionally, the code of Stuxnet is available on the internet, making it an open source cyber weapon potentially capable of attacking power grids, nuclear plants, or other infrastructure if the source code is accurately altered. Siemens has released a detection and removal tool for Stuxnet. "Stuxnet" is a computer worm designed to attack large-scale industrial facilities like power plants, dams, refineries or water treatment centers. "The Israeli's have made hacking Iranians an art form," he asserts, while referring to the strategic rationale driving Israel's actions. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site", "Cyberwar Issues Likely to Be Addressed Only After a Catastrophe", "Hoe onderschept de NSA ons dataverkeer? Stuxnet was discovered because, unexpectedly, it spread beyond the Natanz facility. The virus was reportedly jointly developed by Israel and the United States. Siemens recommends contacting customer support if an infection is detected and advises installing Microsoft updates for security vulnerabilities and prohibiting the use of third-party USB flash drives. Israel has allegedly used four different tactics: Cyberattacks: In 2010, Iran reported that the Stuxnet computer virus destroyed hundreds of centrifuges used to enrich uranium at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. The on-site security expert, unable to figure out the cause, contacted a friend of his, a Belarusian named Sergey Ulasen who was working for the antivirus vendor VirusBlokAda. This too is unusual for malware and is a sign of the level of sophistication involved in its creation. This attack, from an unknown source but likely related to Stuxnet, disabled one of the lists, thereby interrupting an important source of information for power plants and factories. The Stuxnet worm targets a particular model of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) made by Siemens and does not infect the Windows computers. ", "Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran", "Stuxnet attackers used 4 Windows zero-day exploits", Stuxnet Worm Impact on Industrial Cyber-Physical System Security, "The Stuxnet Attack on Iran's Nuclear Plant Was 'Far More Dangerous' Than Previously Thought", "Sheep dip your removable storage devices to reduce the threat of cyber attacks", "Exploring Stuxnet's PLC Infection Process", "Siemens: Stuxnet worm hit industrial systems", "Last-minute paper: An indepth look into Stuxnet", "Stuxnet worm hits Iran nuclear plant staff computers", "Stuxnet Introduces the First Known Rootkit for Industrial Control Systems", "Iran's Nuclear Agency Trying to Stop Computer Worm", "How Stuxnet Is Rewriting the Cyberterrorism Playbook", "Stuxnet Virus Targets and Spread Revealed", "Stuxnet worm 'targeted high-value Iranian assets', "Stuxnet virus: worm 'could be aimed at high-profile Iranian targets', "Update 2-Cyber attack appears to target Iran-tech firms", "Iran Confirms Stuxnet Worm Halted Centrifuges", "In a Computer Worm, a Possible Biblical Clue", "Software smart bomb fired at Iranian nuclear plant: Experts", "Kaspersky Lab provides its insights on Stuxnet worm", "Stuxnet Questions and Answers F-Secure Weblog", "Cracking the code: Defending against the superweapons of the 21st century cyberwar", "Israel video shows Stuxnet as one of its successes", "Thunderstruck! [68] When certain criteria are met, it periodically modifies the frequency to 1,410Hz and then to 2Hz and then to 1,064Hz, and thus affects the operation of the connected motors by changing their rotational speed. Other experts believe that a US-Israel cooperation is unlikely because "the level of trust between the two countries' intelligence and military establishments is not high. For five decades between 1972 and 2022 the global development of the nuclear security regime replicate itself. [53] GOSSIP GIRL is a cooperative umbrella that includes the Equation Group, Flame, Duqu, and Flowershop (also known as 'Cheshire Cat').[54][55][56]. Stuxnet includes rootkit abilities at both user and kernel mode. The story is very feasible as malware indeed made the . ", "Serious nuclear accident may lay behind Iranian nuke chief%27s mystery resignation", "Did Stuxnet Take Out 1,000 Centrifuges at the Natanz Enrichment Plant? The. Two websites in Denmark and Malaysia were configured as command and control servers for the malware, allowing it to be updated, and for industrial espionage to be conducted by uploading information. [110], According to The Washington Post, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cameras installed in the Natanz facility recorded the sudden dismantling and removal of approximately 9001,000 centrifuges during the time the Stuxnet worm was reportedly active at the plant. Stuxnet was designed to destroy the centrifuges Iran was using to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear program. [140][141] However, it may be that the "MYRTUS" reference is simply a misinterpreted reference to SCADA components known as RTUs (Remote Terminal Units) and that this reference is actually "My RTUs"a management feature of SCADA. nuclear power plants, that happened in Ukraine in 2022. recommend starting with a risk analysis and a control system security assessment. Absolute Cyber Power. The FAS report was reviewed by an official with the IAEA who affirmed the study. [13][14], Stuxnet, discovered by Sergey Ulasen, initially spread via Microsoft Windows, and targeted Siemens industrial control systems. He later pleaded guilty for lying to FBI agents pursuing an investigation into the leak. [2] But if the goal was to destroy a more limited number of centrifuges and set back Irans progress in operating the FEP, while making detection difficult, it may have succeeded, at least temporarily. As the story goes, the Stuxnet worm was designed and released by a government--the U.S. and Israel are the most common suspects--specifically to attack the Bushehr nuclear power plant in. said the Stuxnet virus aimed at Iran's atomic program was the work of its two . [122] In January 2010, another Iranian nuclear scientist, a physics professor at Tehran University, was killed in a similar bomb explosion. [161], The United Kingdom has denied involvement in the worm's creation. Khan. Additionally, in 2010 Israel grew to expect that Iran would have a nuclear weapon in 2014 or 2015 at least three years later than earlier estimates without the need for an Israeli military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities; "They seem to know something, that they have more time than originally thought", he added. Iran plans to sue Israel through the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and is also willing to launch a retaliation attack if Israel does not desist.[166]. [68], The malware furthermore used a zero-day exploit in the WinCC/SCADA database software in the form of a hard-coded database password. While neither government has ever officially acknowledged developing Stuxnet, a 2011 video created to celebrate the retirement of Israeli Defense Forces head Gabi Ashkenazi listed Stuxnet as one of the successes under his watch. [29][62] Israel has not publicly commented on the Stuxnet attack but in 2010 confirmed that cyberwarfare was now among the pillars of its defense doctrine, with a military intelligence unit set up to pursue both defensive and offensive options. [116][117][118][119], According to Hamid Alipour, deputy head of Iran's government Information Technology Company, "The attack is still ongoing and new versions of this virus are spreading." [28][29] Kaspersky Lab concluded that the sophisticated attack could only have been conducted "with nation-state support. [66][98][99] Langner called the malware "a one-shot weapon" and said that the intended target was probably hit,[100] although he admitted this was speculation. Iran's Telecommunications minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi has since accused Israel of orchestrating the attack. Until the vulnerability is mitigated, hackers can exploit it to adversely affect computer programs, data, additional computers or a network. Operation Olympic Games was seen as a nonviolent alternative. The Stuxnet computer virus, discovered in 2010 and widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation, once disrupted and destroyed Iranian centrifuges at Natanz during an earlier period of . [131][92] Yossi Melman, who covers intelligence for Israeli newspaper Haaretz and wrote a book about Israeli intelligence, also suspected that Israel was involved, noting that Meir Dagan, the former (up until 2011) head of the national intelligence agency Mossad, had his term extended in 2009 because he was said to be involved in important projects. The Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security (CrySyS) of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics analyzed the malware, naming the threat Duqu. The Stuxnet virus succeeded in its goal of disrupting the Iranian nuclear program; one analyst estimated that it set the program back by at least two years. James Ball. US-Israeli computer super-worm hit Russian nuclear plant - Kaspersky. [139][62], Some have also cited several clues in the code such as a concealed reference to the word MYRTUS, believed to refer to the Latin name myrtus of the Myrtle tree, which in Hebrew is called hadassah. PLCs are how computers interact with and control industrial machinery like uranium centrifuges. Ulasen and his team managed to isolate the malware and realized how many zero-days it was exploiting and what they were up against. Besides the aforementioned Alex Gibney documentary Zero Days (2016), which looks into the malware and the cyberwarfare surrounding it, other works which reference Stuxnet include: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [108], The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) report further notes that Iranian authorities have attempted to conceal the breakdown by installing new centrifuges on a large scale. At the time, of course, nobody had any idea that computer malware was causing this. [21][22], Different variants of Stuxnet targeted five Iranian organizations,[23] with the probable target widely suspected to be uranium enrichment infrastructure in Iran;[22][24][25] Symantec noted in August 2010 that 60% of the infected computers worldwide were in Iran. Iranian technicians, however, were able to quickly replace the centrifuges and the report concluded that uranium enrichment was likely only briefly disrupted.[111]. An office in Iran (not part of the nuclear program) was experiencing mysterious reboots and blue screens of death, which were even affecting computers with fresh OS installs. Unlike most viruses, the worm targets systems that are traditionally not. As we noted above, there are other malware families that seem to have functionality derived from Stuxnet; these may be from the same intelligence agency shop, or they might represent freelance hackers who have managed to reverse-engineer some of Stuxnet's power. This could lead them to start a nuclear war by mistake, believing that they could lose the ability to respond appropriately if they waited for more information. [135] According to The Telegraph, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a video celebrating operational successes of Gabi Ashkenazi, retiring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff, was shown at his retirement party and included references to Stuxnet, thus strengthening claims that Israel's security forces were responsible. Experts believe that Israel also somehow acquired P-1s and tested Stuxnet on the centrifuges, installed at the Dimona facility that is part of its own nuclear program. The malware targeted a power plant and some other industries in Hormozgan province in recent months. In 1975, German Kraftwerk Union AG, a joint venture of Siemens AG and AEG-Telefunken, signed a contract worth US$4-6 billion to build the pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant. Director Alex Gibney Writer Alex Gibney Stars David Sanger Emad Kiyaei Eric Chien See production, box office & company info . With more than 30,000 IP addresses affected in Iran, an official said that the infection was fast spreading in Iran and the problem had been compounded by the ability of Stuxnet to mutate. It is the first sign that Stuxnet, which targets systems made by the German company Siemens, has reached equipment linked to Iran's nuclear programme. Bloomberg Television", "Spymaster sees Israel as world cyberwar leader", "Cyber takes centre stage in Israel's war strategy", "Stuxnet, the real face of cyber warfare", "Worm in Iran Can Wreck Nuclear Centrifuges", "Israeli security chief celebrates Stuxnet cyber attack", "A worm in the centrifuge: An unusually sophisticated cyber-weapon is mysterious but important", "Iran Fights Malware Attacking Computers", "Iran/Critical National Infrastructure: Cyber Security Experts See The Hand of Israel's Signals Intelligence Service in The "Stuxnet" Virus Which Has Infected Iranian Nuclear Facilities", "Mysterious 'Myrtus' Biblical Reference Spotted in Stuxnet Code", "Symantec Puts 'Stuxnet' Malware Under the Knife", "New Clues Point to Israel as Author of Blockbuster Worm, Or Not", "Stuxnet Worm a U.S. Cyber-Attack on Iran Nukes? [165], In 2018, Gholamreza Jalali, Iran's chief of the National Passive Defence Organisation (NPDO), claimed that his country fended off a Stuxnet-like attack targeting the country's telecom infrastructure. Nonetheless, there remain important questions about why Stuxnet destroyed only 1,000 centrifuges. They would be arranged in eight arrays and that there would be 168 centrifuges in each array. Although some computers at Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor were infected by the Stuxnet worm, none of the facility's crucial control systems were affected, Iranian officials claimed Sunday. [168][169] Symantec, based on this report, continued the analysis of the threat, calling it "nearly identical to Stuxnet, but with a completely different purpose", and published a detailed technical paper. [93] But after subsequent research, Schneier stated in 2012 that "we can now conclusively link Stuxnet to the centrifuge structure at the Natanz nuclear enrichment lab in Iran". [149] A Wired article claimed that Stuxnet "is believed to have been created by the United States". The reactor building of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, pictured here on Aug. 20, is located about 750 miles south of Tehran. . Langer determined that Stuxnet was specifically designed to target Iranian centrifuges and had most likely been created by a government with significant resources. The country's defence ministry wants to develop weapons similar to Stuxnet, the software designed to attack Iranian nuclear enrichment plants. As long as you're practicing the basics of good cyber hygiene, keeping your OS and security software up to date, you don't have much to worry about. Their similarity to Stuxnet leads experts to believe that they are products of the same development shop, which is apparently still active. It's now widely accepted that Stuxnet was created by the intelligence agencies of the United States and Israel. Olli Heinonen, deputy director at the UN's nuclear. In early commentary, The Economist pointed out that Stuxnet was "a new kind of cyber-attack. [132][133][134] When questioned whether Israel was behind the virus in the fall of 2010, some Israeli officials[who?] [62], Several industry organizations[84][85] and professional societies[86][87] have published standards and best practice guidelines providing direction and guidance for control system end-users on how to establish a control system security management program. [155] Frank Rieger stated that three European countries' intelligence agencies agreed that Stuxnet was a joint United States-Israel effort. Fereydoon Abbasi, a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Defense was seriously wounded. And it was a thorough analysis of the code that eventually revealed the purpose of the malware. [88] The layers include policies and procedures, awareness and training, network segmentation, access control measures, physical security measures, system hardening, e.g., patch management, and system monitoring, anti-virus and intrusion prevention system (IPS). In the absence of either criterion, Stuxnet becomes dormant inside the computer. In 2020, researcher Facundo Muoz found evidence suggesting that Equation Group collaborated with Stuxnet developers in 2009 by lending them at least one zero-day exploit,[57] and one exploit from 2008[58] that was being actively used in-the-wild by the Conficker computer worm and Chinese hackers. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and is believed to be responsible for causing substantial damage to the nuclear program of Iran. [8] Stuxnet's design and architecture are not domain-specific and it could be tailored as a platform for attacking modern SCADA and PLC systems (e.g., in factory assembly lines or power plants), most of which are in Europe, Japan, and the United States. New and important evidence found in the sophisticated "Stuxnet" malware targeting industrial control systems provides strong hints that the code was designed to sabotage nuclear plants, and . On 26. Copyright 2022 IDG Communications, Inc. New York Times, 4 September 2019 (updated 6 September 2019), Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, Satellite Imagery of the Natanz Enrichment Facility, Institute for Science and International Security, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Vulnerability of nuclear plants to attack, "Confirmed: US and Israel created Stuxnet, lost control of it", "Stuxnet was work of U.S. and Israeli experts, officials say", "The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran Hawks in Israel and America Have Spent More than a Decade Agitating for War Against the Islamic Republics Nuclear Program. How many zero-days it was exploiting and what they were up against adversely affect programs. A Wired article claimed that Stuxnet was a thorough analysis of the nuclear regime. Only 1,000 centrifuges is apparently still active a control system security assessment why Stuxnet only! `` is believed to have been created by the intelligence agencies agreed that Stuxnet `` believed. 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