Send to Printer

itNews

Things That Make Me Go Hmmm

November 18, 2010 9:44:31.232

The Stuxnet worm seems to have been designed to attack Iran's nuclear efforts - now there are warnings that it could be easily modified to attack other systems for different purposes:

A malicious computer attack that appears to target Iran's nuclear plants can be modified to wreak havoc on industrial control systems around the world, and represents the most dire cyberthreat known to industry, government officials and experts said Wednesday. They warned that industries are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the so-called Stuxnet worm as they merge networks and computer systems to increase efficiency. The growing danger, said lawmakers, makes it imperative that Congress move on legislation that would expand government controls and set requirements to make systems safer.

That's true of many worms though - Conficker comes to mind. Additionally, what's the most likely source of a worm that has a political purpose - it seems unlikely to me that the crime syndicate botnets would target that way - mostly they have commercial (i.e., making money) purposes. So ultimately, it makes me wonder about the nature of the disease, and the proposed cure....

Technorati Tags: , ,

posted by James Robertson

 Share Tweet This