Super weapon network war: Stuxnet, mysterious computer worm

Thousands of Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges suddenly "stand dead". A war of bombs and casualties has begun and seems to have repelled Iran's nuclear program for two years.

Stuxnet is a product of a collective.

This is a battle with no noise, no corpses that computer experts have been alarming for a long time, but only seriously mentioned in June 2010.

The ultimate weapon in this war is an extremely unknown mysterious computer worm, with tremendous physical destruction. It not only destroys objects that it creeps in but can also destroy ideas.

Super weapons have vague origins

Its ' offerings ' are Stuxnet worms, a ' super weapon ' of cyberwarfare - as judged by computer security experts - that really worries every country.

It was created to destroy a specific target such as power plants, refineries or nuclear plants after secretly invading the industrial process control system, rewriting this control program in the direction self destruction.

Stuxnet is a computer worm that lives in the Windows operating system environment , fully exploiting the vulnerabilities of this operating system to undermine a specific physical goal. Long operation, but the Stuxnet worm was discovered only in June 2010 by VirusBlokAda , a computer security company based in Belarus.

Unlike other worms, Stuxnet does not help its creators make money or steal data. Stuxnet is the first computer worm capable of moving from the digital field to the physical world to destroy a physical target.

In terms of complexity, the Stuxnet worm has many confusing points. It shows that the creator has a deep understanding of industrial processes, about Windows vulnerabilities and deliberately attacks industrial infrastructure. It is unusual for it to be written in many different programming languages ​​(including C and C ++).

As far as danger is concerned, Stuxnet surprised the experts on computer worms. It's too complicated, contains too many codes, it's too big to fully understand its gut in a short time.

According to Microsoft Company, there are about 45,000 computers in the world of 9 countries infected with Stuxnet, but the number of industrial control systems is not much, mainly in Iran.

Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant is the target of Stuxnet's attack. (Photo: Matsav )

Who created Stuxnet?

It is a question not easily answered. So far, no one has accepted the father of Stuxnet. All answers are only inferences and hypotheses.

According to many newspapers, the big British, American stations like The Guardian, BBC and The New York Times , with the level of extremely complex code creation, no one can create it.

It is a collective work consisting of 5 to 10 people, it takes at least 6 months, even years and takes tens of millions of dollars to create Stuxnet worms. In that condition, it is only possible that a new country can afford to hire such a group to do shady things.

Since up to 60% of computer and industrial equipment are infected by Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has confirmed that some industrial control systems have been infected with Stuxnet but not as much as the Western press described. - the first country suspected of being none other than Israel.

According to The New York Times daily , a former US intelligence officer said the creator of Stuxnet could be the 8200 Unit, a secret agency that collects and deciphers Israeli military intelligence.

Yossi Melman, a journalist specializing in intelligence for the Israeli daily Haaretz, is writing an Israeli intelligence book, also believing that Israel is behind the attack on Iranian nuclear plants with the Stuxnet worm .

Melman especially noted that Meir Dagan, director of the Mossad National Intelligence Agency , should have retired from office in 2009 but has been retained so far to carry out many important projects, including possible including Stuxnet project.

In addition, a year before Stuxnet was discovered, Scott Borg, an expert of US-CUU (US Network for War Consequences Research), believed that because the US did not agree to allow Israel to launch an attack. military into Iran's nuclear facilities for fear of a massive military and political crisis in the Middle East, Israel has chosen cyberwar to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Borg insisted: ' Since the fall of 2002, I have predicted that a cyberwar weapon is being deployed. Israel certainly has the ability to create the Stuxnet worm used to attack the enemy without fear of risk because it is almost impossible to know exactly who caused the war. A weapon like Stuxnet is clearly an optimal choice . '

There are also rumors of NATO, the US and some other Western countries involved in this war. Last week, the French weekly Le Canard Enchainé, which led the French intelligence source, said US, British and Israeli intelligence agencies had a contract to undermine Iran's nuclear program after Israel agreed to give up. military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

However, rumors are still rumors, there is no evidence that Western countries are involved in this war.