Article

2011-12-30 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Stuxnet virus used on Iran was 1 of 5 cyberbombs

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Posted by trailing wife 2011-12-30 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 "It's like a Lego set. You can assemble the components into anything: a robot or a house or a tank," he said.

Sweet! I wonder if any self-modifying or self-deleting code was involved. Good stuff.

Posted by gorb 2011-12-30 03:03|| 2011-12-30 03:03|| Front Page Top

#2 Not so good if it hits, say, our power distribution system in the US, tho.

Posted by lotp 2011-12-30 09:21|| 2011-12-30 09:21|| Front Page Top

#3 The US power grid is not a major worry, oddly enough, because subsystems use completely different and incompatible software, and interconnectivity is based on just crude transfer of energy. Yet this effectively insulates the entire grid from cyber attack. Only one part can be taken down at a time.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-12-30 09:41|| 2011-12-30 09:41|| Front Page Top

#4 Not quite true, unfortunately.

Yes, there are different systems in place. However, it's not hard to identify scenarios in which targetted cyber attacks cause power feedback loops that essentially cascade throughout one of the very large regional networks. Moreover, the power grid doesn't stand alone - it is interdependent with the communications grid. Failures can and would cascade across both networks in the event of an attack.

Those interested in an example could download this article from the journal Nature, which analyzed the vulnerabilities of interdependent networks as demonstrated by the cascading failures that shut down most of Italy's power and communications grids in 2003.

At the time many suspected a terror attack on the grounds that the blackout spread so widely and so quickly. The article linked above shows how networks that are interdependent become much more fragile under certain conditions than they would be if they stood alone. That fragility can result in catastrophic cascades of failure across both networks at once.

Posted by lotp 2011-12-30 16:45|| 2011-12-30 16:45|| Front Page Top

#5 Here's a commentary on the linked article in the same issue of Nature . An easier read that calls out the implications of this work.

Posted by lotp 2011-12-30 16:53|| 2011-12-30 16:53|| Front Page Top

#6 That's just what the Russkies want Iran to think.,,,

Posted by Barbara 2011-12-30 22:18|| 2011-12-30 22:18|| Front Page Top

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