Experts believe that Israel also somehow acquired P-1s and tested Stuxnet on the centrifuges, installed at the Dimona facility that is part of its own nuclear program. Will Trump Finally Deliver? [11], Stuxnet has three modules: a worm that executes all routines related to the main payload of the attack; a link file that automatically executes the propagated copies of the worm; and a rootkit component responsible for hiding all malicious files and processes, to prevent detection of Stuxnet. Stuxnet is a computer worm that was originally aimed at Iran's nuclear facilities and has since mutated and spread to other industrial and energy-producing facilities. Security researchers are still building off of Stuxnet to discover new attack techniques. [93] But after subsequent research, Schneier stated in 2012 that "we can now conclusively link Stuxnet to the centrifuge structure at the Natanz nuclear enrichment lab in Iran". ", "Satellite Imagery of the Natanz Enrichment Facility", "Computer virus in Iran actually targeted larger nuclear facility", "Iranian Nuclear Program Plagued by Technical Difficulties", "Iran pauses uranium enrichment at Natanz nuclear plant", "The Stuxnet worm: A cyber-missile aimed at Iran? "Stuxnet" is a computer worm designed to attack large-scale industrial facilities like power plants, dams, refineries or water treatment centers. It severely crippled Iran's nuclear program, though the malware also accidentally spread beyond the limits of Iran's nuclear facilities due to its aggressive nature. "[138] Iran uses P-1 centrifuges at Natanz, the design for which A. Q. Khan stole in 1976 and took to Pakistan. [114] And, in late 2010 Borg stated, "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. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site", "Cyberwar Issues Likely to Be Addressed Only After a Catastrophe", "Hoe onderschept de NSA ons dataverkeer? For instance, he says, "it was pretty obvious from the first time we analyzed this app that it was looking for some Siemens equipment." Stuxnet is a powerful computer worm designed by U.S. and Israeli intelligence that to disable a key part of the Iranian nuclear program. Iranian technicians, however, were able to quickly replace the centrifuges and the report concluded that uranium enrichment was likely only briefly disrupted.[111]. The US Department of Homeland Security National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) operates the Control System Security Program (CSSP). [59] In 2017, a group of hackers known as The Shadow Brokers leaked a massive trove of tools belonging to Equation Group, including new versions of both exploits compiled in 2010, showing significant code overlaps as both Stuxnet's exploits and Equation Group's exploits were developed using a set of libraries called "Exploit Development Framework" also leaked by The Shadow Brokers. A centrifuge is used to spin uranium fast enough to separate the different isotopes by weight via to centrifugal force. The malware is able to modify the code on PLC devices unnoticed, and subsequently to mask its presence from WinCC if the control software attempts to read an infected block of memory from the PLC system. The worm infected both plants damaging a number of centrifuges installed in the Natanz nuclear facilities. The computer virus, apparently developed in Israel with the help of the CIA, was launched in 2009. What is new is the role of Dimona, where . James Ball. [22][158] In 2019, it was reported that an Iranian mole working for the Dutch intelligence at the behest of Israel and the CIA inserted the Stuxnet virus with a USB flash drive or convinced another person working at the Natanz facility to do so. Stuxnet is an extremely sophisticated computer worm that exploits multiple previously unknown Windows zero-day vulnerabilities to infect computers and spread. He later pleaded guilty for lying to FBI agents pursuing an investigation into the leak. New York Times, 4 September 2019 (updated 6 September 2019), Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, Satellite Imagery of the Natanz Enrichment Facility, Institute for Science and International Security, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Vulnerability of nuclear plants to attack, "Confirmed: US and Israel created Stuxnet, lost control of it", "Stuxnet was work of U.S. and Israeli experts, officials say", "The Secret History of the Push to Strike Iran Hawks in Israel and America Have Spent More than a Decade Agitating for War Against the Islamic Republics Nuclear Program. [6], Stuxnet specifically targets programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which allow the automation of electromechanical processes such as those used to control machinery and industrial processes including gas centrifuges for separating nuclear material. (The code for one driver, a very small part of the overall package, has been reconstructed via reverse engineering, but that's not the same as having the original code.). Washington (CNN) -- A highly complex computer attack that may have been targeting Iran's nuclear power plants is posing a serious security threat to critical infrastructure worldwide,. [139][62], Some have also cited several clues in the code such as a concealed reference to the word MYRTUS, believed to refer to the Latin name myrtus of the Myrtle tree, which in Hebrew is called hadassah. [16][21][63] The Windows component of the malware is promiscuous in that it spreads relatively quickly and indiscriminately.[46]. [151], The fact that John Bumgarner, a former intelligence officer and member of the United States Cyber-Consequences Unit (US-CCU), published an article prior to Stuxnet being discovered or deciphered, that outlined a strategic cyber strike on centrifuges[152] and suggests that cyber attacks are permissible against nation states which are operating uranium enrichment programs that violate international treaties gives some credibility to these claims. Iran's sole nuclear power plant is not at risk of a tsunami similar in size to the one that knocked out the electricity and emergency cooling systems at Fukushima. Most uranium that occurs in nature is the isotope U-238; however, the fissile material used in a nuclear power plant or weapon needs to be made from the slightly lighter U-235. The authors conclude: The attacks seem designed to force a change in the centrifuges rotor speed, first raising the speed and then lowering it, likely with the intention of inducing excessive vibrations or distortions that would destroy the centrifuge. A new documentary on "Stuxnet", the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program, reveals it was just a small part of a much bigger cyber operation against the nation's military and civilian infrastructure under the code name "NITRO ZEUS". Once in control of the PLCs, Stuxnet varied the rotation speeds of the centrifuges while they were in operation in a way that damaged them and left them inoperable in short order. [2] Although neither country has openly admitted responsibility, the worm is widely understood to be a cyberweapon built jointly by the United States and Israel in a collaborative effort known as Operation Olympic Games. [83] The program operates a specialized computer emergency response team called the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), conducts a biannual conference (ICSJWG), provides training, publishes recommended practices, and provides a self-assessment tool. [37], The worm was at first identified by the security company VirusBlokAda in mid-June 2010. They claimed that the world's major nuclear arsenals are focusing on the wrong problem. [184][185] On 17 January 2017, he was granted a full pardon in this case by President Obama, thus expunging his conviction. Ulasen and his team managed to isolate the malware and realized how many zero-days it was exploiting and what they were up against. [28][29] Kaspersky Lab concluded that the sophisticated attack could only have been conducted "with nation-state support. In July 2008, INL and Siemens publicly announced flaws in the control system at a Chicago conference; Stuxnet exploited these holes in 2009. The nuclear power plant's administrative network was breached in the attack but did not cause any critical damage. Kaspersky noted, however, that since the power plant is not connected to the public Internet, the system should remain safe. South Korea is to develop cyber-attack tools in an attempt to damage North Korean nuclear facilities. nuclear power plants, that happened in Ukraine in 2022. [3][4][5] The program, started during the Bush administration, was rapidly expanded within the first months of Barack Obama's presidency. But beyond specific technologies, Stuxnet is significant because it represented the first widely recognized intrusion of computer code into the world of international conflict, an idea that previously had been in the realm of cyberpunk sci-fi. Olli Heinonen, deputy director at the UN's nuclear. ", "Stuxnet-Virus knnte tausend Uran-Zentrifugen zerstrt haben", "Mossad's Miracle Weapon: Stuxnet Virus Opens New Era of Cyber War", Iran's Natanz nuclear facility recovered quickly from Stuxnet cyberattack, "Stuxnet Malware and Natanz: Update of ISIS December 22, 2010 Report", "Signs of sabotage in Tehran's nuclear programme", "Wary of naked force, Israel eyes cyberwar on Iran", "Stuxnet worm rampaging through Iran: IT official", "IRAN: Speculation on Israeli involvement in malware computer attack", "Iran struggling to contain 'foreign-made' 'Stuxnet' computer virus", "Stuxnet: Ahmadinejad admits cyberweapon hit Iran nuclear program", "Iran: Computer Malware Sabotaged Uranium Centrifuges | Threat Level", "US Denies Role in Iranian Scientist's Death", "New FAS Report Demonstrates Iran Improved Enrichment in 2010", "Report: Iran's nuclear capacity unharmed, contrary to U.S. assessment", "Report: Report: Iran's Nuclear Program Going Full Speed Ahead", "Experts say Iran has "neutralized" Stuxnet virus", "Stuxnet worm heralds new era of global cyberwar", "Falkenrath Says Stuxnet Virus May Have Origin in Israel: Video. For its targets, Stuxnet contains, among other things, code for a man-in-the-middle attack that fakes industrial process control sensor signals so an infected system does not shut down due to detected abnormal behavior. [39] Developing its many abilities would have required a team of highly capable programmers, in-depth knowledge of industrial processes, and an interest in attacking industrial infrastructure. [159][160], Sandro Gaycken from the Free University Berlin argued that the attack on Iran was a ruse to distract from Stuxnet's real purpose. The classified program to develop the worm was given the code name "Operation Olympic Games"; it was begun under President George W. Bush and continued under President Obama. [148] An article in The New York Times in January 2009 credited a then-unspecified program with preventing an Israeli military attack on Iran where some of the efforts focused on ways to destabilize the centrifuges. But if the goal was to destroy a more limited number of centrifuges and set back Irans progress in operating the FEP, while making detection difficult, it may have succeeded, at least temporarily. The Stuxnet worm might be partly responsible for delays in Iran's nuclear programme, says a former UN nuclear inspections official. If its goal was to quickly destroy all the centrifuges in the FEP [Fuel Enrichment Plant], Stuxnet failed. The Stuxnet virus succeeded in its goal of disrupting the Iranian nuclear program; one analyst estimated that it set the program back by at least two years. Absolute Cyber Power. "[102] On 23 November 2010 it was announced that uranium enrichment at Natanz had ceased several times because of a series of major technical problems. New and important evidence found in the sophisticated "Stuxnet" malware targeting industrial control systems provides strong hints that the code was designed to sabotage nuclear plants, and . Two websites in Denmark and Malaysia were configured as command and control servers for the malware, allowing it to be updated, and for industrial espionage to be conducted by uploading information. [155] Frank Rieger stated that three European countries' intelligence agencies agreed that Stuxnet was a joint United States-Israel effort. "We could see in the code that it was looking for eight or ten arrays of 168 frequency converters each," says O'Murchu. On 1 September 2011, a new worm was found, thought to be related to Stuxnet. First, the former editor of a national newspaper in Japan says the U.S. and Israel knew Fukushima had weapons-grade uranium and plutonium that were exposed to the . A tale of malware, AC/DC, and Iran's nukes", "Iran 'fends off new Stuxnet cyber attack', "Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station", "Experts Warn of New Windows Shortcut Flaw", "How digital detectives deciphered Stuxnet, the most menacing malware in history", "Stuxnet opens cracks in Iran nuclear program", "Myrtus and Guava: the epidemic, the trends, the numbers", "Researchers say Stuxnet was deployed against Iran in 2007", "Stuxnet Under the Microscope, Revision 1.31", "Super Virus A Target For Cyber Terrorists", "A Fanny Equation: "I am your father, Stuxnet", "SAS 2019: Stuxnet-Related APTs Form Gossip Girl, an 'Apex Threat Actor', "CSEC SIGINT Cyber Discovery: Summary of the current effort", "Territorial Dispute NSA's perspective on APT landscape", "Big Game Hunting: The Peculiarities of Nation-State Malware Research", "GOSSIPGIRL Stuxnet group had '4th man;' unknown version of Flame & Duqu found", "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-061 - Critical", "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 - Critical", "The Emerald Connection: EquationGroup collaboration with Stuxnet", "Israel Tests on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay", "Conficker Worm: Help Protect Windows from Conficker", "Creating Malware using the Stuxnet LNK Exploit", "Blockbuster Worm Aimed for Infrastructure, But No Proof Iran Nukes Were Target", "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-061 Critical", "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-046 Critical", "Ralph's Step-By-Step Guide to Get a Crack at Stuxnet Traffic and Behaviour", "Vulnerability Summary for CVE-2010-2772", "SIMATIC WinCC / SIMATIC PCS 7: Information concerning Malware / Virus / Trojan", "Siemens warns Stuxnet targets of password risk", "Siemens: Stuxnet Worm Hit Industrial Systems", "Stuxnet also found at industrial plants in Germany", "Repository of Industrial Security Incidents", "DHS National Cyber Security Division's CSSP", "ISA99, Industrial Automation and Control System Security", "Industrial communication networks Network and system security Part 2-1: Establishing an industrial automation and control system security program", International Electrotechnical Commission, "Stuxnet worm is the 'work of a national government agency', "Clues Emerge About Genesis of Stuxnet Worm", "Iran confirms Stuxnet found at Bushehr nuclear power plant", "Stuxnet malware is 'weapon' out to destroy Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant? Remember, Stuxnet affects PLCs, so you'll want to keep any operational technology as secure as possible as well. Langer determined that Stuxnet was specifically designed to target Iranian centrifuges and had most likely been created by a government with significant resources. [149] A Wired article claimed that Stuxnet "is believed to have been created by the United States". Stuxnet is a malicious computer worm first uncovered in 2010 and thought to have been in development since at least 2005. [174], If the country targeted with such a cybersecurity attack were India or Pakistan, the resulting nuclear war would likely produce a nuclear autumn during which roughly a quarter of humanity, most of whom were not directly impacted by nuclear explosions, could starve to death if they did not die of something else sooner. "[62] While the worm is promiscuous, it makes itself inert if Siemens software is not found on infected computers, and contains safeguards to prevent each infected computer from spreading the worm to more than three others, and to erase itself on 24 June 2012.[39]. In that piece, Kim Zetter claimed that Stuxnet's "costbenefit ratio is still in question. Stuxnet, a worm virus, took out thousands of centrifuges at Natanz. [136], In 2009, a year before Stuxnet was discovered, Scott Borg of the United States Cyber-Consequences Unit (US-CCU)[137] suggested that Israel may prefer to mount a cyber-attack rather than a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. If no PLCs are detected, the worm does nothing; if they are, Stuxnet then alters the PLCs' programming, resulting in the centrifuges being spun irregularly, damaging or destroying them in the process. They cited several sources to support this claim including a GAO study that found that many advanced weapon systems in the U.S. use commercial and free software without changing the default passwords. This malware was capable of spreading only by being physically installed, probably by previously contaminated field equipment used by contractors working on Siemens control systems within the complex. Stuxnet showed the. . While security researchers don't have access to the Stuxnet codebase, they've been able to learn a lot by studying it, and have determined that it was written in multiple languages, including C, C++, and probably several other object-oriented languages. [77] It also installs a rootkit the first such documented case on this platform that hides the malware on the system and masks the changes in rotational speed from monitoring systems. Bloomberg Television", "Spymaster sees Israel as world cyberwar leader", "Cyber takes centre stage in Israel's war strategy", "Stuxnet, the real face of cyber warfare", "Worm in Iran Can Wreck Nuclear Centrifuges", "Israeli security chief celebrates Stuxnet cyber attack", "A worm in the centrifuge: An unusually sophisticated cyber-weapon is mysterious but important", "Iran Fights Malware Attacking Computers", "Iran/Critical National Infrastructure: Cyber Security Experts See The Hand of Israel's Signals Intelligence Service in The "Stuxnet" Virus Which Has Infected Iranian Nuclear Facilities", "Mysterious 'Myrtus' Biblical Reference Spotted in Stuxnet Code", "Symantec Puts 'Stuxnet' Malware Under the Knife", "New Clues Point to Israel as Author of Blockbuster Worm, Or Not", "Stuxnet Worm a U.S. Cyber-Attack on Iran Nukes? According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in September 2010 experts on Iran and computer security specialists were increasingly convinced that Stuxnet was meant "to sabotage the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz where the centrifuge operational capacity had dropped over the past year by 30 percent. An office in Iran (not part of the nuclear program) was experiencing mysterious reboots and blue screens of death, which were even affecting computers with fresh OS installs. This attack, from an unknown source but likely related to Stuxnet, disabled one of the lists, thereby interrupting an important source of information for power plants and factories. So a tool like Stuxnet is Israel's obvious weapon of choice. [50], In 2019, Chronicle researchers Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Silas Cutler presented evidence of at least four distinct threat actor malware platforms collaborating to create the different versions of Stuxnet. said the Stuxnet virus aimed at Iran's atomic program was the work of its two . [108], The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) report further notes that Iranian authorities have attempted to conceal the breakdown by installing new centrifuges on a large scale. . It only attacks those PLC systems with variable-frequency drives from two specific vendors: Vacon based in Finland and Fararo Paya based in Iran. One observation is that it may be harder to destroy centrifuges by use of cyber attacks than often believed. Sometime the following year, the worm found its way into the computers that control Iran's most. A documentary focused on Stuxnet, a piece of self-replicating computer malware that the U.S. and Israel unleashed to destroy a key part of an Iranian nuclear facility, and which ultimately spread beyond its intended target. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition ( SCADA) systems and is believed to be responsible for causing substantial damage to the nuclear program of Iran. Special Correspondent, BuzzFeed UK. "[39] It has been reported that the United States, under one of its most secret programs, initiated by the Bush administration and accelerated by the Obama administration,[147] has sought to destroy Iran's nuclear program by novel methods such as undermining Iranian computer systems. A new documentary tells the story of Stuxnet, a computer virus developed, it is claimed, by Israel and the U.S. to disrupt the Iranian nuclear project. ], Perry and Collina also noted that a nuclear war by accident is much more likely than Russia launching a first strike on the United States. U.S. Air Force designates six cybertools as weapons Stuxnet quickly propagated throughout Natanz -- knocking that facility offline and at least temporarily crippling Iran's nuclear program --. "[30] F-Secure's chief researcher Mikko Hyppnen, when asked if possible nation-state support was involved, agreed "That's what it would look like, yes. Das Schadprogramm wurde speziell entwickelt zum Angriff auf ein System zur berwachung und Steuerung (SCADA-System) des Herstellers Siemens - die Simatic S7.Dabei wurde in die Steuerung von Frequenzumrichtern der Hersteller Vacon aus Finnland und Fararo Paya in Teheran . The "Stuxnet" computer . Stuxnet soon became known to the security community thanks to a call to tech support. "[179] Later commentators tended to focus on the strategic significance of Stuxnet as a cyber weapon. Stuxnet is an advanced persistent threat that was elaborately designed to . Copyright 2023 IDG Communications, Inc. Ilyaliren / Sandipkumar Patel / Getty Images, CSO provides news, analysis and research on security and risk management, "Evil PLC Attack" weaponizes PLCs to infect engineering workstations, Stuxnet: the father of cyber-kinetic weapons, Sponsored item title goes here as designed, New Stuxnet clues suggest sabotage of Iran's uranium enrichment program, derail, or at least delay, the Iranian program to develop nuclear weapons, listed Stuxnet as one of the successes under his watch, took a team of ten coders two to three years, set the program back by at least two years, spent the evening on the phone with his Iranian friend, particularly in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, The 10 most powerful cybersecurity companies, 7 hot cybersecurity trends (and 2 going cold), The Apache Log4j vulnerabilities: A timeline, Using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to address organizational risk, 11 penetration testing tools the pros use. [39] The worm contains a component with a build time-stamp from 3 February 2010. US-Israeli computer super-worm hit Russian nuclear plant - Kaspersky. [165], In 2018, Gholamreza Jalali, Iran's chief of the National Passive Defence Organisation (NPDO), claimed that his country fended off a Stuxnet-like attack targeting the country's telecom infrastructure. "But then we realized what we had got ourselves intoprobably an international espionage operationand that was quite scary." [8] Stuxnet's design and architecture are not domain-specific and it could be tailored as a platform for attacking modern SCADA and PLC systems (e.g., in factory assembly lines or power plants), most of which are in Europe, Japan, and the United States. [21] On 15 July 2010, the day the worm's existence became widely known, a distributed denial-of-service attack was made on the servers for two leading mailing lists on industrial-systems security. 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