Iran’s nuclear plans slowed due to Windows 7 flaws

56 Comments

“In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond,” Ed Barnes reports for FOXNews. “The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters where scientists in the clutches of an evil master are secretly building a weapon that can destroy the world. Then render that weapon harmless and escape undetected.”

“But in the 21st century, Bond doesn’t get the call,” Barnes reports. “Instead, the job is handled by a suave and very sophisticated secret computer worm, a jumble of code called Stuxnet, which in the last year has not only crippled Iran’s nuclear program but has caused a major rethinking of computer security around the globe.”

Barnes reports, “Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Whoda thunk it? Microsoft’s ineptitude turns out to be good for something after all! You should’ve got a Mac, Ahmadinejad, you batshit insane son-a-ma-batch.

“Here’s to the crazy ones,” indeed.

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56 Comments

  16. Of course, we have little to fear regarding Iran. They are being built into the boogie man du jour by our government and the mainstream media-industrial complex, because there are people who benefit by us being at perpetual war.

    Reply

  23. Apparently a little animated paperclip popped up and said
    “It looks like you’re building a nuclear bomb.”
    “Would you like help … ?”

    x) Let me help you with your centrifuge speed control software.
    o) Enrich uranium without my help.
    o) Do not show this tip again.

    Reply

  24. I work in the chemical process industry and frankly this is no laughing matter. Stuxnet was originally designed to specifically cause malfunction of the variable-speed drives of centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Since the “vehicle” is now well known, it would be possible to retask the worm to attack Siemens-based controls systems at power plants, chemical or refining facilities, hospitals or any other site using this brand of controller. I disagree with using Windows clients as the front end for industrial controls, but unfortunately this is typical of all the major control system vendors. Even worse, most of the front ends are programmed in Visual Basic. It’s important to note that the device doing the actual control is not a Windows computer, but a dedicated process control computer running a proprietary OS. In this case Stuxnet uses the infected Windows client to access the process controller.

    The real problem here is that the industrial control systems are not isolated from the “outside”, and even if there are no network connections, it’s too easy to bring in removable media (such as a CD or thumb drive) that may be infected.

    Reply

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