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The worm as a 'cyber missile'

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Fred Nerd:
This is absolutely crazy technology,

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/

This sounds like fun. Imagine being able to write code like that....

f0dder:
What's absolutely crazy is that systems controlling important infrastructure is
1) buggy as hell.
2) insecure.
3) CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET.

Most of the .us power grid could probably be taken offline because of SCADA insecurity - I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet.

40hz:
Very cool!

Reads like a segment out of John Brunner's 1975 sci-fi classic The Shockwave Rider which I believe was the first time the notion of a cyber "worm" was put forth.

Interesting article. And a good read. But since it comes from Fox, I wonder how much of the story they got right - and how much of it they got wrong.

Their record for accuracy when reporting on computer and web tech isn't too stellar. And their political agenda tends to color their coverage.

Eóin:
f0dder, in the stuxnet case the control systems weren't connected to the internet, the worm got onto them through infected USB sticks. That's also crazy too I know.

40hz:
What's absolutely crazy is that systems controlling important infrastructure is
1) buggy as hell.
2) insecure.
3) CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET.
-f0dder (December 01, 2010, 05:28 AM)
--- End quote ---

re: #3

Who says they have to be connected? In 2008, the US took a major hit to one of it's secure military networks courtesy of a USB flash drive. Foreign Affairs had an article on it here:

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks. It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East. The flash drive's malicious computer code, placed there by a foreign intelligence agency, uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. Central Command. That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control. It was a network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary.
--- End quote ---

 8)

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Addendum: Oops! Looks like Eóin beat me to it.  ;D

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