In high school, William Gibson was among my favorite authors. So I suppose it’s not surprising that I’ve been fascinated, in a kind of deer-in-the-headlights-of-the-future way, by Stuxnet:
The Stuxnet worm is a “groundbreaking” piece of malware so devious in its use of unpatched vulnerabilities, so sophisticated in its multipronged approach, that the security researchers who tore it apart believe it may be the work of state-backed professionals. (CSM)
Although we’ve seen cyber-attacks designed to steal confidential information, or shut down computer services, this may be the first software weapon intended to sabotage a piece of physical manufacturing infrastructure.
The current smart money seems to be that the software was intended to target nuclear facilities inside Iran, and was developed by the United States, Israel, or the UK.
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