Article

2010-12-12 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Stuxnet Worm Still Out of Control at Iran's Nuclear Sites, Experts Say

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Posted by Mike Ramsey 2010-12-12 08:00|| || Front Page|| [11124 views ] Top

#1 Stuxnet is taking out the centrifuges (some accounts say by half) by causing the control software to alternate between speeding up and slowing down the rate of spin while reporting constant RPMs to the monitoring software. That plays heck with the bearings.

Merry Christmas and happy Festival of Lights.

Posted by Mike Ramsey 2010-12-12 10:12|| 2010-12-12 10:12|| Front Page Top

#2 TW was one of the first as I recall to mention this little bugger. Here is a interesting site to review current thoughts on it;

http://www.governmentsecurity.org/latest-security-news/rethinking-stuxnet-threatpost.html

I remember India was hit hardest at first then Iran. The hits were across the globe and along the equator. Not Russia, China, North Korea,and Germany to name a few.

Posted by Dale 2010-12-12 11:23|| 2010-12-12 11:23|| Front Page Top

#3 Irans anti-worm effort may have had another setback. In Tehran, men on motorcycles attacked two leading nuclear scientists on their way to work. One scientist was wounded and the other killed. Confirmed reports say that the murdered scientist was in charge of dealing with the Stuxnet virus at the nuclear plants.

Halliburton Mysterious Conspiracy Division? Couldn't be the CIA.

Posted by Bobby 2010-12-12 11:52|| 2010-12-12 11:52|| Front Page Top

#4 The STUXNET virus was introduced into the Iranian system more than 2 years ago. I wonder what the authors of the virus have been doing for the past couple of years?
At least two missiles that the Iranians tested last year went completely out of control and hit populated areas. I suspect maybe other worm family members may be breeding their defence system.

Posted by junkiron 2010-12-12 12:17|| 2010-12-12 12:17|| Front Page Top

#5 Not us. I think. Maybe. I'll have to look into it.

Posted by Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division 2010-12-12 13:17|| 2010-12-12 13:17|| Front Page Top

#6 STUXNET was a large software deveopment project, much different than the normal worm developed by some individual. It was well thought out, the software development team that was put together were very good software people and the testing (QA) was done in a test environment that emulated the real environment in Iran.

Now that weapon systems and nuclear systems are computerized, this will be a new way of striking down those systems.

NASA keeps coming to mind.

Posted by Chereth Panda5039 2010-12-12 13:25|| 2010-12-12 13:25|| Front Page Top

#7 ...and If it was NASA or major new US scientific military agency, it was done during the Bush Administration, which would be a huge military innovative tribute to the Bush Administration that we are only now learning about.

Posted by Chereth Panda5039 2010-12-12 13:35|| 2010-12-12 13:35|| Front Page Top

#8 One scientist was wounded and the other killed.

...maybe...the Saudis...with a little help from friends. That annual holiday thingy makes for great cover.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-12-12 13:38|| 2010-12-12 13:38|| Front Page Top

#9 TW was one of the first as I recall to mention this little bugger.

Surely not, Dale, given all the hot programmers and systems security people that hang around Rantburg, and are on all those fascinating (and incomprehensible to us lesser mortals) listserves.

I have been unduly gleeful about it, though.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-12-12 13:51|| 2010-12-12 13:51|| Front Page Top

#10 Optimally, I suppose, would be to have somebody in Iran, who continues to feed Stuxnet and variants into the system when it is purged. Maybe even unknowingly.

Posted by Anonymoose 2010-12-12 15:06|| 2010-12-12 15:06|| Front Page Top

#11 It appears the Stuxnet worm is still in control

Posted by airandee 2010-12-12 16:35|| 2010-12-12 16:35|| Front Page Top

#12 A group I subscribe to (conspiracy theorists they're not, just a bunch of dull 'BACnet' guys) still has folks that believe the worm may have been burned into any number of the machine controllers' circuit board ROMs at the chip manufacturer(s).

That would indeed be a nasty bit of 'corrective action' for anyone.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2010-12-12 16:43|| 2010-12-12 16:43|| Front Page Top

#13 Too bad they could not get it into the engine computers of the Iranian Republican Guard and the regime.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2010-12-12 16:43|| 2010-12-12 16:43|| Front Page Top

#14 The wikipedia site on stuxnet has this gem,

"in 2009, a year before Stuxnet was discovered, Scott Borg of the United States Cyber-Consequences Unit (US-CCU) had suggested that Israel might prefer to mount a cyber-attack rather than a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.[56] According to Borg this kind of attack could involve disrupting sensitive equipment such as centrifuges using malware introduced via infected memory sticks: "Since the autumn of 2002, I have regularly predicted that this sort of cyber-attack tool would eventually be developed ... Israel certainly has the ability to create Stuxnet and there is little downside to such an attack, because it would be virtually impossible to prove who did it. So a tool like Stuxnet is Israel's obvious weapon of choice."[20"

I especially like the fact they are quoting a Borg.

Posted by Lord Garth 2010-12-12 17:47|| 2010-12-12 17:47|| Front Page Top

#15 I have been unduly gleeful about it, though.

Me, too. Assuming cackling is any measure of gleefulness. And instead of unduly, perhaps vicariously is the word you are looking for, TW?

Posted by gorb 2010-12-12 18:53|| 2010-12-12 18:53|| Front Page Top

#16 And instead of unduly, perhaps vicariously is the word you are looking for, TW?

Perhaps you're right, gorb. But so much of my life is vicarious -- while you-all go out and make waves in the world, I make tea and appreciate the stories that result.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-12-12 19:00|| 2010-12-12 19:00|| Front Page Top

#17 Not necessarily connected, but...hmmm.
A year or so back, in an aerial parade or whatever they have, an Iranian F5 ran into and destroyed one of their few aerial tankers.
Something odd, or, as a person put it years ago, sometimes there really are coincidences.

Posted by Richard Aubrey 2010-12-12 19:48|| 2010-12-12 19:48|| Front Page Top

#18 Well structured test engineering is the most underutilized tool in the SDLC. Panda 5039 makes an important point.

Posted by Rex Mundi 2010-12-12 20:29|| 2010-12-12 20:29|| Front Page Top

#19 "That plays heck wid the Bearings" > Agreed.

Reminds me of WW2 + the 8th USAF's big raids agz SCHWEINFURT + HAMBURG.

See also the repeats of "BATTLE 360" CGI Show on the HISTORY CHANNEL.

* ION DAILY TIMES.PK > {Israeli DM] IRAN NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN STILL AT DIPLOMACY STAGE [UNO Sanctions may still have effect].

Posted by JosephMendiola 2010-12-12 21:15|| NA 2010-12-12 21:15|| Front Page Top

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