Blockbuster Worm Aimed for Infrastructure, But No Proof Iran Nukes Were Target

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By Kim Zetter September 23, 2010 | 3:57 pm | Categories: Breaches, Cybersecurity, Hacks and Cracks, Threats

An exceptionally sophisticated piece of malware designed to attack programs used in critical infrastructure and other facilities garnered extensive attention among computer security experts this week as new details about its design and capabilities emerge, along with speculation it was aimed at disrupting Iran’s nuclear program.

“It’s the most complex piece of malware we’ve seen in the last five years or more,” says Nicolas Falliere, a code analyst at security firm Symantec. “It’s the first known time that malware is not targeting credit card , is not trying to steal personal user data, but is attacking real-world processing systems. That’s why it’s unique and is not over-hyped.”

The Stuxnet worm, which was discovered in June and has infected more than 100,000 computer systems worldwide, is designed to attack the Siemens Simatic WinCC SCADA system. SCADA systems, short for “supervisory control and data acquisition,” are programs installed in pipelines, nuclear plants, utility companies and manufacturing facilities to manage operations.

But even more intriguingly, researchers say the worm is designed to attack a very particular configuration of the Simatic SCADA software, indicating the malware writers had a specific facility or facilities in mind for their attack and had extensive knowledge of the system they were targeting. Although it’s not known what system was targeted, once on the targeted system, the worm was designed to install additional malware, possibly with the purpose of destroying the system and creating real-world explosions in the facility where it ran.



Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/?intcid=gnav

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