Cyber Primer

Integrating cyber operations
Cyber weapon used to realise physical effects
Who
What
How
Against
whom
Why
When
Unknown.
Intelligence collection, denial of service attack against Siemens SCADA
(supervisory control and data acquisition) systems – Flame, Stuxnet and others.
Media reports that W32 Stuxnet is a highly sophisticated worm designed to
exploit vulnerabilities in the Siemens WinCC SCADA systems. It was probably
manually inserted in the original target local area network. It used zero day
exploitation scripts and genuine Internet security certificates to avoid detection
and only attacked specified Iranian targets.
Iranian centrifuges at the Natanz uranium refinery plant. Several additional
networks were also unintentionally infected.
Reportedly an effort to delay Iranian production of nuclear weapons.
An original version of what became Stuxnet appeared on 20 November 2008,
but the most sophisticated version used against Iran was first detected on 17 July
2010.
Impact
Media reports that approximately 100,000 hosts were infected globally (although
most of these infections caused no damage) and that approximately 984
centrifuges were damaged at Natanz. Media also reports that Iran established
the Cyber Passive Defence Organisation and developed a cyber defence
programme, as a direct result of Stuxnet. Allegedly, Iranian hacktivists retaliated
by attacking the United States banking structure and other targets.
More
information
Symantec technical report is at: http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/
enterprise/media/security_response/whitepapers/w32_stuxnet_dossier.pdf
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