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Stuxnet: The Revolutionary New Cyber Weapon

Milica Djekic, an Online Marketing Coordinator at Dejan SEO and the Editor-in-Chief at
Australian Science Magazine

As modern cyber attacks are getting more complex and sophisticated, our world is suffering
a serious deficit in an adequate security tool or software capable of detecting such an
advanced threat. The problem with the new generation of malware is that they can easily
break into every system, but stay undetected there for a long period of time. In this article,
we attempt to explain in brief the new cyber weapon bringing the revolutionary approach to
modern cyber warfare and military affairs. Its name is Stuxnet and right now it’s the one of
the best known advanced malware for doing sabotage in the world.
Introduction

In June, 2010 Stuxnet malware has been identified by a small Belarusian software firm while
it came to spread an infection through some USB stick. But, that’s not all. The majority of
infection has occurred in Iran within their nuclear plant at Natanz which was the part of their
nuclear program. Luckily, this cyber division delayed the development of Iranian nuclear
weapon by more than 4 years. It has been speculated that this malicious worm is the secret
project of some scientific team from the US and Israel. However, Stuxnet has done its job by
getting over 100,000 machines in the world infected.

Stuxnet is the next generation sophisticated malware which purpose is a sabotage of the
industrial equipment. Some sources claim that Stuxnet entered an Iranian nuclear complex
on some removable device, probably USB stick. Once it makes a system infected, it starts
working on the sabotage of industrial controllers. It can affect some sorts of PLC
(Programmable Logic Controller) equipment within an industrial plant or, in Iranian case,
within a nuclear complex. This malware spreads very fast through network and after some
period of time it begins to do a sabotage. In general, it would accelerate the centrifuges
controlled by PLCs and cause the complete malfunction of the industrial equipment.

The crucial issue with such a threat is it cannot be easily detected using the modern ways of
malicious software detection. These can be pretty concerning since the equipment can get
malfunctioned and no one will get what caused that. The main concern is that Stuxnet is just
the beginning in advanced threats development. Hackers are always one step ahead
security. The new versions of modern and improved malware are coming and they are threat
for everyone in this world, so some measures should be taken in order to prevent from such
attacks.

How Does Stuxnet Work?

Stuxnet was designed to cause a failure to industrial equipment. It is designed for sabotage,
not crime. Its aim is a, so called, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system.
This system serves in controlling of critical infrastructure such as industrial equipment, power
plants and so on. The Stuxnet worm can get into SCADA systems very easily through the

21 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – August 2014 Edition
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