Iran and the Stuxnet Malworm

Executive Summary – Ok what is a Stuxnet Malworm? It is malware or software that works against the host computer. Such Stuxnet Malworm software has been introduced into the computer systems of Iran, think nuclear facilities and military and industrial complexes. Such malware worms tend to replicate themselves and penetrate deeper and deeper into the computer systems. They have the ability to be upgraded while working in the infected computer system. One way they are inserted into the network is through the use of infected USB drives.

Iran Efforts to Defeat the Malware – Their efforts have failed miserably. This is not something Norton or McAfee are going to be able to help with. The more you fight against the worm the harder it fights back. It probably has artificial intelligence that would be illustrated by it learning the counter attack methods deployed against it and then designing more effective penetration methods. Many experts were called in but have failed to disable the worm. This could be because of the uniqueness of the worm. The worm has cloaking ability. If one uses a rootkit to look through the code to find the issue, the worm is invisible. Even if it should be found (unlikely) the source code is seriously encrypted. This worm is a bad boy.

How Deep is the cyber attack? - The conservative estimates are 35,000 networks, and that is a lot. The more generous ones are up to a million. This is a massive cyber attack. It has hit things like public utilities, electric grids, bridges, many things.

Information Leaks – Well for a worm to leak out vital information it needs to access some sort of communication link. This can be internet, phone or satellite uploads. It is possible to have a really secure network that is normally quarantined from the internet or phone systems but it could have access to other networks who are not so quarantined and there lies the leak potential. Some one behind the worm may have been downloading Iran's vital data for weeks or longer when the worm was in a more dormant state. This makes the damage devastating and years would be needed to correct from this.

Worm Attack Potential – The worm could have been sending back information about how the computers control Iran's missile defense systems as well as their nuclear plants. With this information the remote control operators of the worm may have told the worm to modify the nuclear plants. They could have affected the industrial equipment by say removing controls stopping an engine from exceeding a safe level of RPM'S. It could also shut off lubrication or coolant for another machine. It can allow another machine to exceed safe operating temperature levels. In short it can wreck an industrial plant easily. The worm was designed specifically to look for such limiting controls and manipulate them to cause breakdowns. In one past incident in another country the worm was used to cause a pipeline to buildup pressure and the resulting explosion was 40% the force of Hiroshima. These worms can be most destructive. They can cause a shutdown of their nuclear potential without dropping one bomb or firing a single shot. Their nuclear facilities can be in sheer disarray, malfunctioning all over the place with their plants being destroyed in such a way as to not cause property damage or loss of life. The perfect bullet so to speak. If this has already happened Iran is not going to admit it. It is very important to them to save face in the Muslim world as the big bad brave renegade nation facing up to the big satan (USA, Israel, UK). They could have also rendered their military missile defense system useless. They could have changed firing codes so they can't launch their own missiles. They could change launch coordinates with an algorithm to cause any missile going towards certain targets to turn around and destroy the launch site or worse. Locking them out of their own systems is expected.

Has this affected Iran? - Well according to this BBC article the start-up of Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant has been delayed until January. Hmmmm.

Start-up of Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant delayed

Other Factors that Might Tell us this Affected Iran – Mind you the effects can be regarding the nuclear plants as well as their military, electrical and other infrastructures. Iran can currently be as weak as it was when the Shah was there. Well there is a coup in progress today in Ecuador. Ecuador is a big supporter of Iran. Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba support Iran along with Ecuador. These three countries are big time police states and a coup there would be immensely difficult. This is not the case with Ecuador. One could guess that Ecuador just might have wanted some nukes after Iran had a big enough inventory of them to sell. Well now that Iran is out of the nuclear arms race there just happened to be a coup in Ecuador. Forget the alibi the mainstream talking heads give you for the coup, a coup is a coup is a coup. At the same time we see Israel resuming building housing in Samaria and Judea and the peace talks with the Palestinians factions have stopped. Yes I would think the boys from Iran have lost their nuclear capability and probably their war making ability in general. All this was accomplished without even a surgical strike or the loss of one life or the destruction of one building. On the other hand it was most enjoyable to hear the President of Iran bad mouth Obama at the UN and give his rendition of the inside job regarding 9/11. I would say this too is a confirmation of the damage that the worm did on Iran.

Can Iran Guard Against this sort of Attack Again? – Well we assume the developers of the Stuxnet Worm will continue development and improvement morphing it into new products. The Iranians are not known for winning a lot of Nobel Prizes in science. Their nation has not been a contributor to science and medicine. They would need to hire outside talent to help them. I am pessimistic on their capability to protect their computer systems. Before we get there let's see if they can ever recover from this attack first. I think they took a bad hit and it is more correctly referred to as a continuing hit. Hardening all of their industrial computer networks and sanitizing them can take a long time, maybe years. Remember the worm is upgradable when it is inside of the host computer networks and it can also upgrade itself most likely through artificial intelligence learning characteristics. The controller of the Stuxnet probably knows just how much damage was done. Iran knows they will not step into the limelight and claim the Stuxnet as theirs so they are just going to shine it on to save face. The President of Iran knows Iran has been emasculated and will just pout his chest and bluff away. I think we can forget about any nuclear fallout problems in the middle east as well as any blockages of the waterways.

A New Industry has Just Been Born – Protecting networks from such attacks. People will become extremely wealthy from this. In a few years norton will protect your system from such attacks.

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