It’s called opening Pandora’s Box. We deserve whatever happens next. Fuck the Federal Government and their terroristic actions against other sovereign countries.
Stuxnet goes out of control: Chevron infected by anti-Iranian virus, others could be next
California-based Chevron, a Fortune 500 company that’s among the biggest corporations in the world, admits this week that they discovered the Stuxnet worm on their systems back in 2010. Up until now, Chevron managed to make their finding a well-kept secret, and their disclosure published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday marks the first time a US company has come clean about being infected by the virus intended for Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. Mark Koelmel of the company’s earth sciences department says that they are likely to not be the last, though.
“We’re finding it in our systems and so are other companies,” says Koelmel. “So now we have to deal with this.”
Koelmel claims that the virus did not have any adverse effects on his company, which generated a quarter of a trillion dollars in revenue during 2011. As soon as Chevron identified the infection, it was taken care of immediately, he says. Other accidental targets might not be so lucky though, and the computer worm’s complex coding means it might be a while before anyone else becomes aware of the damage.
“I don’t think the US government even realized how far it had spread,” Koelmel adds.
Discovered in 2010, the Stuxnet worm was reported with all but certainty to be the creation of the United States, perhaps with the assistance of Israel, to set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program as a preemptive measure against an eventual war. Only as recently as this June, however, American officials with direct knowledge of the worm went public with Uncle Sam’s involvement.
In a June 2012 article published by The New York Times, government agents with direct knowledge of Stuxnet claimed that first President George W. Bush, then Barack Obama, oversaw the deployment of the worm as part of a well-crafted cyberassault on Iran. Coupled with another malicious program named Flame and perhaps many more, Stuxnet was waged against Iran as part of an initiative given the codename “Olympic Games.” Rather than solely stealing intelligence through use of computer coding, the endeavor was believed to be the first cyberattack that intended to cause actual hard damage.
“Previous cyberattacks had effects limited to other computers,” Michael Hayden, the former chief of the CIA, explained to the Times earlier this year. “This is the first attack of a major nature in which a cyberattack was used to effect physical destruction.”
On the record, the federal government maintains ignorance on the subject of Stuxnet. With American companies perhaps soon coming out of the woodwork to discuss how they were hit, though, the White House may have to finally admit that they’ve had direct involvement.
After the Times published their expose in June, Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of Intelligence Committee, called for an investigation to track down how the media was first made aware of America’s involvement in Olympic Games.
“I am deeply disturbed by the continuing leaks of classified information to the media, most recently regarding alleged cyber efforts targeting Iran’s nuclear program,” Feinstein said through a statement at the time. “I made it clear that disclosures of this type endanger American lives and undermine America’s national security.”
When Feinstein spoke to DC’s The Hill newspaper, she said, “the leak about the attack on Iran’s nuclear program could ‘to some extent’ provide justification for copycat attacks against the United States.” According to the chairwoman, “This is like an avalanche. It is very detrimental and, candidly, I found it very concerning. There’s no question that this kind of thing hurts our country.”
Just last month, a shadowy Iranian-based hacking group called The Qassam Cyber Fighters took credit for launching a cyberattack on the servers of Capital One Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp., two of the biggest names in the American banking industry. Days earlier, Google informed some of its American users that they may be targeted in a state-sponsored cyberattack from abroad, and computer experts insist that these assaults will only intensify over time.
“We absolutely have seen more activity from the Middle East, and in particular Iran has been increasingly active as they build up their cyber capabilities,” CrowdStrike Security President George Kurtz told the Times.
Speaking of the accidental impact Stuxnet could soon have in the US, Chevron’s Koelmel tells the Journal, “I think the downside of what they did is going to be far worse than what they actually accomplished.”
ssgconway says:
Cyber-feudalism may be the only way to keep one’s electronics functioning. I was very happy to learn that my town’s water supply/sewage computer systems are off-grid, for example. They’re relatively safe. Inter-connectivity with the rest of the world means being exposed to whatever’s out there. Infrastructure-focused attacks will be especially harmful; imagine Stuxnet infecting the OnStar system, for example. (I have no idea if it’s even possible, but there are probably worse potentialities that are, as we’ll see soon enough.)
P.S. This also arguably constitutes an act of war; I am sure that the Iranians will respond, in kind if they can, asymmetrically if they can’t.
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10th November 2012 at 4:57 pm
Kill Bill says:
Even off grid systems are vulnerable if employees plug infected thumb drives etc into those systems.
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10th November 2012 at 5:10 pm
Steve Hogan says:
None of the mainstream media sites even has a mention of this. It’s pretty sad when you have to go to Russia Times to figure out what’s going on.
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10th November 2012 at 5:32 pm
KaD says:
Imagine what’ll happen when one of these government backed viruses ends up infecting a nuclear power plant.
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10th November 2012 at 7:44 pm
Novista says:
Building your very own Black Swan without even realizing it. It is to laugh.
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10th November 2012 at 8:17 pm
prtrb'd says:
The fed be jostling for position on the internet kill switch?
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10th November 2012 at 8:33 pm
Kill Bill says:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals
If you want a look under the hood as to what ports and what your computer is connecting to and what files, registry entries are created, modified or accessed then you will find these useful.
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10th November 2012 at 8:36 pm
Kill Bill says:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2012/10/30/3529266.aspx
educate yourself
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10th November 2012 at 8:45 pm
flash says:
Science should never be questioned on merit, it’s value, value , value, all day long bitchez.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
The Italian war on science continues
As we learned in the reaction to the L’Aquila verdicts, holding scientists accountable for actions that lead directly to the deaths of innocent people is a direct attack on science:
Italian police say they have arrested nine cardiologists accused of performing unauthorized experimental treatments on patients. Carabinieri Col. Giovanni Capasso says the investigation began over a year ago after consumer groups raised alarm about some suspicious deaths at the Polyclinic hospital in the northern city of Modena.
Capasso said nine doctors were arrested Friday on accusations of corruption, criminal association, embezzlement, defrauding the national health system and performing unauthorized experimental treatments. One was jailed while the others were given house arrest. In addition, he said, a dozen medical equipment companies have been barred from working with the national health system for their alleged involvement in the scheme.
What an outrage! Obviously these heroes of science must be released at once! How dare the Italian authorities put such fine, reputable scientists on trial for the “crime” of adding to the the body of scientific knowledge?
Labels: science
posted by Vox @ 11/10/2012 11:30:00 AM
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-italian-war-on-science-continues.html
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10th November 2012 at 9:21 pm
Ron says:
Thats to funny!
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10th November 2012 at 2:11 am
America’s cyberwar is already seeing collateral damage, and it’s hitting the country’s own billion-dollar companies. Oil giants Chevron say the Stuxnet computer virus made by the US to target Iran infected their systems as well. « Family Survi says:
[...] Oops – Unintended Consequences of Unleashing Stuxnet Virus (theburningplatform.com) [...]
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10th November 2012 at 5:31 am