10.12.10
Gemini version available ♊︎Windows Worms Allegedly Crash Satellites Now, Proceed to More Damage in More Countries
Summary: The Windows worm which has already raised nuclear tension is claimed to be doing damage all across the planet and outside the planet too
“Did The Stuxnet Worm Kill India’s INSAT-4B Satellite,” asked Sag Arun in relation to this short Stuxnet report from Forbes. It seems reasonable to assume a correlation.
On July 7, 2010, a power glitch in the solar panels of India’s INSAT-4B satellite resulted in 12 of its 24 transponders shutting down. As a result, an estimated 70% of India’s Direct-To-Home (DTH) companies’ customers were without service. India’s DTH operators include Sun TV and state-run Doordarshan and data services of Tata VSNL.
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I uncovered this information as part of my background research for a paper that I’m presenting at the Black Hat Abu Dhabi conference in November. My objective for that presentation will be to provide an analytic model for determining attribution in cases like Stuxnet. My objective for this post is simply to show that there are more and better theories to explain Stuxnet’s motivation than just Israel and Iran, as others have posited. My personal research won’t be available until after Black Hat Abu Dhabi, however I hope others will pick up this thread, give it a good yank, and see what unravels before then.
Iran is now denying that Stuxnet was the cause of nuclear problems:
Delays in bringing Iran’s nuclear plant online at Bushehr are due to a “small leak” and nothing to do with the infamous Stuxnet worm, according to the country’s energy minister.
“Stuxnet Worms On” says Slashdot, which has a new summary with links:
Numerous Stuxnet related stories continue to flow through my bin today, so brace yourself: Unsurprisingly, Iran blames Stuxnet on a plot set up by the West, designed to infect its nuclear facilities. A Symantec researcher analyzed the code and put forth attack scenarios. A Threatpost researcher writes about the sophistication of the worm. Finally, Dutch multinationals have revealed that the worm is also attacking them. We may never know what this thing was really all about.
“Stuxnet ‘a game changer for malware defence’,” says The Register
The worm, whose primary method of entry into systems is infected USBs, essentially ignores vulnerable Windows boxes but aggressively attacks industrial control (SCADA) systems from Siemens, establishing a rootkit as well as a backdoor connection to two (now disconnected) command and control servers in Malaysia and Denmark.
Suffice to say, it is a Windows-only problem. Some of the mainstream press still neglects to point it out. More posts about Stuxnet can be found below. █
- Ralph Langner Says Windows Malware Possibly Designed to Derail Iran’s Nuclear Programme
- Windows Viruses Can be Politically Motivated Sometimes
- Who Needs Windows Back Doors When It’s So Insecure?
- Windows Insecurity Becomes a Political Issue
- Windows, Stuxnet, and Public Stoning
- Stuxnet Grows Beyond Siemens-Windows Infections
- Has BP Already Abandoned Windows?
- Reports: Apple to Charge for (Security) Updates
- Windows Viruses Can be Politically Motivated Sometimes
- New Flaw in Windows Facilitates More DDOS Attacks
- Siemens is Bad for Industry, Partly Due to Microsoft
- Microsoft Security Issues in The British Press, Vista and Vista 7 No Panacea
- Microsoft’s Negligence in Patching (Worst Amongst All Companies) to Blame for Stuxnet
- Microsoft Software: a Darwin Test for Incompetence
- Bad September for Microsoft Security, Symantec Buyout Rumours
- Microsoft Claims Credit for Failing in Security
- Many Windows Servers Being Abandoned; Minnesota Goes the Opposite Direction by Giving Microsoft Its Data
- Windows Users Still Under Attack From Stuxnet, Halo, and Zeus
- EU Concerns Highlight Need to Remove Windows From the Network
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williami said,
October 15, 2010 at 8:39 pm
At least there isn’t a virus that makes satellites go beserk and crash into our planet… Then we would be in very real trouble. But, as a positive side-effect to that, we would see a big spike in Linux usage.