Stuxnet like attack on Armed forces? Science fiction or reality?

ajay_ijn

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I got to learn about Stuxnet only recently. I was pretty shocked after reading about it, i am unable to digest the fact that a computer worm, for first time was designed to damage real physical hardware and it probably did do the damage to Iranian Centrifuges. This was purely science fiction until now, it was the thing that could only happen in Hollywood movies. For me its changes everything computer virus, worm, cyber warfare.
The era of true cyber warfare began with stuxnet attack.

if Stuxnet has been designed to penetrate into Iranian nuclear installations, It should also be able to target military networks, penetrate and do real physical damage to military hardware. Fighters have Flight control computers, Radars, Air defense networks etc It all looks unlikely, but considering the stunning sophistication and complexity of Stuxnet, these scenarios become probable in future.
 

aerokan

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too bad nobody replied to an interesting thread.. To do damage without being detected is a very difficult task. They knew the target like the back of the hand and they precisely know what was targeted. U have to know exactly what they are gonna use and how they are gonna use and even after that there are still too many uncertainities
 

ajay_ijn

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U have to know exactly what they are gonna use and how they are gonna use
Yes i think thats the difficult part, one would be needing source codes which runs FIghters FCS, Radar computers, Air defence networks to understand its behavior, exploit vulnerability, and finally take control of system.

stealthy worms are needed which would do the job without alerting, penetrate into military networks, stay undetected for years to learn about their software behavior, way it controls hardware etc, find out further vulnerability.

more than destroying hardware, disrupting the system itself by overwhelming it or corrupting it would also do the job. If such things happen at key moments in wartime, it would be great advantage for opponent.

if one dangerous worm is able to disrupt, cause aircraft, warships, defense networks to go useless until they find out way to clean the system, close the vulnerability. it could be decisive for opponent even if that vulnerability window takes just few days.
 
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Spindrift

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there is a new malware called Duqu which is based on stuxnet you can read more about it here Face to Face with Duqu malware | The Hacker News (THN) Security Blog


U have to know exactly what they are gonna use and how they are gonna use and even after that there are still too many uncertainities
First thing, if it is a government sponsored project.. then obtaining this kind of info will not be much difficult.
Secondly, all these systems are based on multiple smaller systems working together and some of them are available to the general public only if you where to look for it and all you need to do is figure out a way cause these smaller systems to go haywire and that would be it...
Of course they would have redundancy and exception handling built in, but if can get the system to malfunction at a critical juncture even for 5 minutes you can cause a lot of damage..
 

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