First Weaponized Software

Some more articles:

Stuxnet worm hits Iran nuclear plant staff computers


Iran nuke SCADAs saturated with Stuxnet infection


US, Israel behind cyber-attack on Iran?

All, here's an update coming from The New York Times; it is believed this virus was created by Israel as it contains this word buried deep in its code: Myrtus.

From journalists John Markoff & David E. Sanger of NYT:
"It was Mr. Langner who first noted that Myrtus is an allusion to the Hebrew word for Esther. The Book of Esther tells the story of a Persian plot against the Jews, who attacked their enemies pre-emptively."

Full link: www.nytimes.com...

www.breitbart.com... the virus has spread to china and is wreaking some form of havock

Now it's messing with China....

First the Trade War, now the rest of the story...




www.siliconindia.com...

Originally posted by oozyism
reply to post by Jason88

 

Is this a physical virus, programmed to read computer instructions, making it software?

I'm lost..

If it doesn't need internet, that means it must be physical, right?

Apologies for the delay in responding, oozyism. I saw your question weeks ago when this thread started and meant to write back but wasn't sure if you were poking fun at me, or being sincere. I'm new to ATS and didn't want to "take the bait" if that was the case. I do know now that, for the most part, ATS members believe there is more to this world than meets the eye and have real, burning questions about...well, everything!


From my limited experience in the computer security field, I can say somewhat confidently this bug is not an actual physical virus, like the flu, as it exists solely as written lines of software code. Malicious software is called "viruses" or "bugs" because they literally make your computer sick (as you may be aware, infected computers can even become "zombies" that are slaves to the commands of the virus, ordered to spam e-mail accounts or attack websites by creating "denial of service" scenarios).

By not needing the Internet means the bug can infect computers that are not online; meaning, it would take a spy or somebody/thing to actually load the virus onto the computers infecting them. (There may be other ways to do this without the Interwebs, but I can't think of any).

For your reference, below is an eye opening, inventive article demonstrating how hackers will attempt to infect computers/networks without using the Internet as the channel. From real world experts the journalist writes about how hackers wait outside the target location to meet people who work for the unsuspecting company (usually smokers); they also drop thumb drives around the parking lot like candy and find enough employees wiling plug the mini-drives into their work computer to see what's on there without realizing they just unleashed a nasty virus designed to capture passwords and client user identification. Enjoy (Dark Reading): www.darkreading.com...

What's truly scary about this virus is its programmed intelligence; simply, it has instructions to break automated computer-aided machines and will manipulate their behavior as well. In my mind's eye, I see a robot created for placing car doors on BMWs, in an assembly line, though once the robot is infected it instead grabs the car doors and smashes it through the windshield, thereby creating real-world damage (not sci-fi anymore) Take that a step further, and a robot, with outward environmental sensors, could lay in wait for a human to pass by then jump to life to kill him, possibly by opening an elevator door before it arrives causing the victim to die from tumbling down the shaft expecting the elevator to be there .

Anyway, weeks later the Stuxnet virus is still scaring the living hell out of computer experts; it's not going away and presents a whole new category of threat to the real computerized world. Please excuse my language, but it's a f**king nightmare scenario that compromises every machine or robot tasked with controlling physical systems and if not contained can break everything from nuclear weapons to electricity grids and Nintendo Wiis.

"EU calls Stuxnet 'paradigm shift' as U.S. responds more mildly" (CNet): news.cnet.com...

I hope that made sense, and thanks for the reply!

reply to post by templar knight


Now that's the million dollar question!
Answer: when such an act will be 100% traceable to the source with evidence which will hold up in the UN.
Currently that's fantasy land.
So, the next question someone should ask, what steps will they "have to" take to make that a reality.

Update: "'Son of Stuxnet' Virus Targets Specific Organizations, Assets"

Malware based on the infamous Stuxnet, widely considered one of the world's most sophisticated viruses, has been discovered by computer scientists.

In a highly detailed report, Symantec says the malware, christened Duqu, (because it creates files with the file name prefix "~DQ") was uncovered in an organization based in Europe. "Our telemetry shows the threat has been highly targeted toward a limited number of organizations for their specific assets. However, it's possible that other attacks are being conducted against other organizations in a similar manner with currently undetected variants," the report says. Stuxnet was a ground-breaking virus that delivered a highly-specific payload attacking control systems.

Those control systems were found in Iranian nuclear processing plants. Greg Day, Security CTO at Symantec EMEA, says the attack was of a similar level of sophistication to Stuxnet and shared a lot of the same code.

"It is either the author of Stuxnet or the author has shared it with someone else. You can get hold of an executable file and try and reverse engineer it. But when we look at it, it is not a copy, most of it is a like-for-like match which suggests they had the source code."

Duqu is not a worm, says Mr. Day. It doesn't spread from machine to machine. "It has been specifically targeted at systems with the goal of getting in, compromising them, and then exfiltrating information."

Source: online.wsj.com...

What I find further interesting is this virus variant will remove itself from system after 36 days so the target never knew it was attacked, and it sends information over the web hidden in pictures, jpeg format. It's very sophisticated and laser focused on its task.