The Stuxnet worm is designed to sabotage nuclear enterprises.

After reading such a headline, I would think that this is an attempt to attract the attention of a “passing by” reader - but no, this heading fully corresponds to the content of the article. The fact is that the information security specialist from Germany, Ralph Lengner, subjected the worm to a detailed analysis. The results of the analysis are quite impressive - looking ahead, I will say that this very Lengner suggests that a whole state may be behind the creation of a worm, and not some kind of hacker-student or their group.



Of course, quite often one talented student can do something that entire research institutes have been working on for a long time without getting a result. But here, most likely, not the case. Let me remind you that Stuxnet is primarily intended for PCs with Siemens software, which is commonly used in various industrial process control systems. And this concerns not small enterprises, but entire nuclear plants. The Stuxnet code contains a section which, theoretically, could allow attackers to gain access to the same control systems. Stuxnet is designed to attack enterprise management components (SCADA), which are used in chemical, nuclear and other large (major) enterprises.

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Lengner is not unsubstantiated - having made such a statement at a conference on information security at work, he also published a detailed analysis of the virus code sections on his own website . Moreover, the Bezopasnik did it last week, although it became known only now.



“Stuxnet is a 100% targeted attack, which is aimed at disrupting the course of normal industrial processes in a conventional, not virtual, world,” says Ralph Lengner.



The three largest US information security specialists, including Michael Assante, agree with Lenner's theory. Until now, the worm code has not been studied enough, it is too complicated, but the work continues.



Interestingly, the experts came to the general opinion that the Iranian Bushehr nuclear plant is the main goal for this worm - in principle, it is not hard to guess who is impatient to destroy such an enterprise in this country. True, the worm is found all over the world, and not only in Iran, so it can be called extremely effective. On a PC, Stuxnet penetrates through the use of three vulnerabilities (in Windows), of which only one has been closed since June.



Security experts also call Stuxnet the first virtual super-weapon created to destroy real objects.



Via Dvice.com