THE  STUXNET

In June 2010 the nuclear facilities in Iran were taken down by a suspicious computer code completely change the face of global warfare.

            Stuxnet was a small computer code of size nearly 500 KB specially designed to target the  industrial control system that are use to monitor and control the large scale facilities such as - power plant, dams, waste processing system etc.

                                  Stuxnet doesn't need any Internet connection to spread it can be via USB drives,

target of Stuxnet was Microsoft Windows based operating systems deployed by Siemens .Such system are high speed centrifuges that help to enrich the nuclear fuel .Stuxnet was different from other worms as it was not even identified by security experts ,as it shows a certificate that it belong to a certified source and not to be consider a miscellaneous software . After getting  to the target it first verify it ,if the system is not a targeted system then it do nothing and remain inside a system without any harm and if the system is targeted system then it will start its work by giving false information to the controllers that every is every component is working fine and is in good condition while in background it compromises the logic controller and harm to components in case of Iran Stuxnet cause the fast spinning of centrifuges and finally lead to breakdown of centrifuges while a false information is showing to controllers that everything is going well.

  

                                                         HOW STUXNET WORKED

Stuxnet work cane be understand in five steps :

• Step 1 :    INFECTION  -   Stuxnet first enter to the system via USB drive proceed to infect all                                          the  machine running on Microsoft windows by showing a    certificate                                         that it belongs to a reliable company.
• step 2:     SEARCH        -   Then Stuxnet search that weather the system is related to targeted                                          system or not i.e made by Siemens. If system doesn't belong to  targeted                                      system then it will do nothing and just keep it update it self when it get                                         Internet connection 
• step 3:  COMPROMISE -  The worm then compromise the system logic controllers that haven't                                       been identified by security experts .
• step 4:  CONTROL        -   Then it uses the information that it gathers and take control over the                                       centrifuges and make them spin them by themselves and lead to failure.
• step 5:  DESTROY        -    Meanwhile it was showing the false information to the controllers                                         until its too late to do something.

  

           A fascinating new documentary film by Alex Gibney called " Zero Days " that  tells the story of Stuxnet.http://documentary-movie.com/zero-days/