Super Virus A Target For Cyber Terrorists

Super Virus A Target For Cyber Terrorists

news.sky.com

he Stuxnet super virus which disrupted Iran's nuclear programme earlier this year has been traded on the black market and could be used by terrorists, according to Sky News sources.

Senior cyber-security figures have said the worm - the first to have been used to damage targets in the real world - could be used to attack any physical target which relies on computers.

The list of vulnerable installations is almost endless – they include power stations, food distribution networks, hospitals, traffic lights and even dams.

A senior IT security source said: "We have hard evidence that

(visit the link for the full news article)

Hi all this is a pretty worrying scenario - 'Stuxnet' the so called super virus that allegedly shut down the Iranian Nuclear power facility has (somehow) happened in to the hands of criminal masterminds and/or terrorists..... hmmmm

Is it just me or can anyone else hear the sound of a massive 'false flag' being unraveled?

Best to be prepared for all sorts of scenarios, such as power supply shut down, transport shut down and so on..

Interested to hear what the thoughts are on this please?

regards

bB

news.sky.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by badBERTHA


Hi all this is a pretty worrying scenario - 'Stuxnet' the so called super virus that allegedly shut down the Iranian Nuclear power facility has (somehow) happened in to the hands of criminal masterminds and/or terrorists..... hmmmm

Is it just me or can anyone else hear the sound of a massive 'false flag' being unraveled?

Best to be prepared for all sorts of scenarios, such as power supply shut down, transport shut down and so on..

Interested to hear what the thoughts are on this please?

regards

bB

news.sky.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

As a player in the InfoSec field, I can tell you without a doubt that stuxnet is not a false flag.

For example...

New 0-day speaks chinese


And now for your entertainment...

honestly, I feel a bit safer that the people of anonymous are embedded in our infrastructure
and take a pro active role in the general interest of what should and can be done.

there is light at the end of the tunnel.

cool hunka im studying to get into the infosec field. got my a+ cert coming up soon. As for the virus i need to look up thanks for the info about it

I wonder how many of these computer viruses out there come from government agencies...

I have also pondered how many virus might be made by the government of by computer companies. After all if there were no computer viruses there would be no need for anti virus software which we all pay for. Anti virus software companies would lose a lot of money. I wouldn't be surprised if the anti virus companies themselves created the viruses to keep business booming as usual.

I lean towards this smelling bad considering the way sky has been playing this one..

All I have been hearing on tv this morning is that "we have spears and our enemies have machine guns" in relation to cyber terrorism they certainly are playing to the fear factor.. oh noes more doom

But I do wonder given the recent budget cuts if this is yet another ploy to try to stop x department getting cut rather than a false flag??

Still I have always questioned who would want to attack the Iranian Nuclear facilities systems.. tho I can't see it being the same people that would attack the UK or US systems..

reply to post by RandalFlagg


There is no doubt in my mind that the largest AV companies out there put money into the manufacturing of some of the viruses out there. Got to keep paying for database susbscriptions lol. I personally use avast myself, and just make sure to make shadow copies of my HD at least once a month. I do happen to get infected, no big deal, active kill my main HD and restore. I keep all my personal files and documents etc on external HD's inside encrypted containers with 40+ character passwords, uppercase, lowercase and special characters. I had a computer stolen once, if it happens again, all they get are really fancy paper weights lmao.

Hi - perhaps false flag is the wrong term.. when Iran's nuclear programme was disrupted by this virus did anyone think that must have been terrorists or cyber criminals who caused that? Or did anyone think hmmm.. perhaps an unhappy government or controlling body has just thrown a spanner into Iran's new toy? Or did anyone think terrorists when Iran's undersea internet cabling was mysteriously severed? Not wanting to point any fingers here so I'll leave that open.. however say for arguments sake that Government 'X' was involved in the original Stuxnet attack - it does strike me as a bit odd in terms of the timing of various financial, political and military events that are unfolding at the moment that this formidable tool should happen to fall into the 'wrong hands'..

I agree with Thoughtsfull in regards to Sky's angle on this news article it does seem very focused on the vulnerabilities of our current intranet with a nice splodge of fear on top .. perhaps this could be a way of enforcing new WWW controls to ensure that "nothing like this ever happens again"... I mean look at the impact one man has had on airline security for trying very badly to set his pants on fire.. put a city in the dark for a few days/weeks and what new measures would be introduced?

cheers

Sky News reported this morning that the Royal Navy website had been hacked again and linked it to this virus...the RM website is indeed down "for maintainance", but Sky have not mentioned it again since.

No reports anywhere either. They weren't talking about the attack the other day on the site, they were saying it had been hacked again.

CX.

Originally posted by CX
Sky News reported this morning that the Royal Navy website had been hacked again and linked it to this virus...the RM website is indeed down "for maintainance", but Sky have not mentioned it again since.

No reports anywhere either. They weren't talking about the attack the other day on the site, they were saying it had been hacked again.

CX.

edit on 25/11/10 by CX because: spelling

Something is certainly up... and given the recent hype about how much the Chinese have invested in such infiltration tactics, I can not help but think there is a lot more to this than meets the eye..

Here is a slightly different take by the BBC

"Detailed analyst of the code in the Stuxnet worm has narrowed the list of suspects who could have created it."

"I do believe the PLC components were written in the West," he said "it's western companies that are investing most heavily in automation of industrial processes, whether it's putting coke in cans or nuclear enrichment." .

"However, the bits that drop it into a system and the command and control parts, are not that advanced at all," said Mr Parker.

edit on 25-11-2010 by HEREFORD 1969 because: (no reason given)

reply to post by CX


Thats just fear mongering.

2nd line.

I often wondered if there is a "doomsday" virus out there. A virus that is getting onto as many systems as it can and just waiting there. At a preset date and time it switches on. A world wide timed virus attack could do damage beyond anything we have ever seen or can imagine. Just think about it. Home and office computer shutting down by the millions all at the same time. Factory computers all over the world shutting down at the same time power plants computers and other computers that control just about everytime in todays world shutting down. Just how much damage would something like that do? How long would it take to re-boot the world?