Monthly Archives: September 2010
Stuxnet a precision, military-grade cyber missile
The Stuxnet malware has infiltrated industrial computer systems worldwide. Now, cyber security sleuths say it’s a search-and-destroy weapon meant to hit a single target. One expert suggests it may be after Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
CSM
By Mark Clayton
Cyber security experts say they have identified the world’s first known
cyber super weapon designed specifically to destroy a real-world target –
a factory, a refinery, or just maybe a nuclear power plant.
The cyber worm, called Stuxnet, has been the object of intense study
since its detection in June. As more has become known about it, alarm
about its capabilities and purpose have grown. Some top cyber security
experts now say Stuxnet’s arrival heralds something blindingly new: a
cyber weapon created to cross from the digital realm to the physical
world – to destroy something.
At least one expert who has
extensively studied the malicious software, or malware, suggests Stuxnet
may have already attacked its target – and that it may have been Iran’s
Bushehr nuclear power plant, which much of the world condemns as a
nuclear weapons threat.
The appearance of Stuxnet created a ripple of amazement
among computer security experts. Too large, too encrypted, too complex
to be immediately understood, it employed amazing new tricks, like
taking control of a computer system without the user taking any action
or clicking any button other than inserting an infected memory stick.
Experts say it took a massive expenditure of time, money, and software
engineering talent to identify and exploit such vulnerabilities in
industrial control software systems.
Unlike most malware, Stuxnet
is not intended to help someone make money or steal proprietary data.
Industrial control systems experts now have concluded, after nearly four
months spent reverse engineering Stuxnet, that the world faces a new
breed of malware that could become a template for attackers wishing to
launch digital strikes at physical targets worldwide. Internet link not
required.
“Until a few days ago, people did not believe a directed
attack like this was possible,” Ralph Langner, a German cyber-security
researcher, told the Monitor in an interview. He was slated to present
his findings at a conference of industrial control system security
experts Tuesday in Rockville, Md. “What Stuxnet represents is a future
in which people with the funds will be able to buy an attack like this
on the black market. This is now a valid concern.”
A gradual dawning of Stuxnet’s purpose
It is a realization that has emerged only gradually.
Stuxnet
surfaced in June and, by July, was identified as a hypersophisticated
piece of malware probably created by a team working for a nation state,
say cyber security experts. Its name is derived from some of the
filenames in the malware. It is the first malware known to target and
infiltrate industrial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
software used to run chemical plants and factories as well as electric
power plants and transmission systems worldwide. That much the experts
discovered right away.
But what was the motive of the people who created it? Was Stuxnet
intended to steal industrial secrets – pressure, temperature, valve, or
other settings –and communicate that proprietary data over the Internet
to cyber thieves?
By August, researchers had found something more
disturbing: Stuxnet appeared to be able to take control of the automated
factory control systems it had infected – and do whatever it was
programmed to do with them. That was mischievous and dangerous.
But
it gets worse. Since reverse engineering chunks of Stuxnet’s massive
code, senior US cyber security experts confirm what Mr. Langner, the
German researcher, told the Monitor: Stuxnet is essentially a precision,
military-grade cyber missile deployed early last year to seek out and
destroy one real-world target of high importance – a target still
unknown.
“Stuxnet is a 100-percent-directed cyber attack aimed at destroying an
industrial process in the physical world,” says Langner, who last week
became the first to publicly detail Stuxnet’s destructive purpose and
its authors’ malicious intent. “This is not about espionage, as some
have said. This is a 100 percent sabotage attack.”
A guided cyber missile
On his website, Langner lays out the
Stuxnet code he has dissected. He shows step by step how Stuxnet
operates as a guided cyber missile. Three top US industrial control
system security experts, each of whom has also independently
reverse-engineered portions of Stuxnet, confirmed his findings to the
Monitor.
“His technical analysis is good,” says a senior US
researcher who has analyzed Stuxnet, who asked for anonymity because he
is not allowed to speak to the press. “We’re also tearing [Stuxnet]
apart and are seeing some of the same things.”
Other experts who
have not themselves reverse-engineered Stuxnet but are familiar with the
findings of those who have concur with Langner’s analysis.
“What
we’re seeing with Stuxnet is the first view of something new that
doesn’t need outside guidance by a human – but can still take control of
your infrastructure,” says Michael Assante, former chief of industrial
control systems cyber security research at the US Department of Energy’s
Idaho National Laboratory. “This is the first direct example of
weaponized software, highly customized and designed to find a particular
target.”
“I’d agree with the classification of this as a weapon,”
Jonathan Pollet, CEO of Red Tiger Security and an industrial control
system security expert, says in an e-mail.
One researcher’s findings
Langner’s
research, outlined on his website Monday, reveals a key step in the
Stuxnet attack that other researchers agree illustrates its destructive
purpose. That step, which Langner calls “fingerprinting,” qualifies
Stuxnet as a targeted weapon, he says.
Langner zeroes in on
Stuxnet’s ability to “fingerprint” the computer system it infiltrates to
determine whether it is the precise machine the attack-ware is looking
to destroy. If not, it leaves the industrial computer alone. It is this
digital fingerprinting of the control systems that shows Stuxnet to be
not spyware, but rather attackware meant to destroy, Langner says.
Stuxnet’s
ability to autonomously and without human assistance discriminate among
industrial computer systems is telling. It means, says Langner, that it
is looking for one specific place and time to attack one specific
factory or power plant in the entire world.
“Stuxnet is the key
for a very specific lock – in fact, there is only one lock in the world
that it will open,” Langner says in an interview. “The whole attack is
not at all about stealing data but about manipulation of a specific
industrial process at a specific moment in time. This is not generic. It
is about destroying that process.”
So far, Stuxnet has infected
at least 45,000 computers worldwide, Microsoft reported last month. Only
a few are industrial control systems. Siemens this month reported 14
affected control systems, mostly in processing plants and none in
critical infrastructure. Some victims in North America have experienced
some serious computer problems, Eric Byres, an expert in Canada, told
the Monitor. Most of the victim computers, however, are in Iran,
Pakistan, India, and Indonesia. Some systems have been hit in Germany,
Canada, and the US, too. Once a system is infected, Stuxnet simply sits
and waits – checking every five seconds to see if its exact parameters
are met on the system. When they are, Stuxnet is programmed to activate a
sequence that will cause the industrial process to self-destruct,
Langner says.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0921/Stuxnet-malware-is-weapon-out-to-destroy-Iran-s-Bushehr-nuclear-plant/(page)/3
Stuxnet infects 30,000 industrial computers in Iran: report
The Stuxnet computer worm has
infected 30,000 computers in Iran but has failed to “cause serious
damage,” Iranian officials were quoted as saying on Sunday.
Some
30,000 IP addresses have been infected by Stuxnet so far in Iran,
Mahmoud Liayi, head of the information technology council at the
ministry of industries, was quoted as saying by the government-run paper
Iran Daily.
Islam’s tentacles enveloping U.S.
‘Every time we allow a mosque to go up, it’s like planting IED’
The proposed Ground Zero mosque in New York City has been a focal point for those wanting to expand Islam’s influence in America, but it’s not the only front on which the nation is facing the advance of Muslim interests.
There are more than 3,000 mosques in the U.S., and work is being done on several major projects that have neighbors alarmed to the point of resistance.
One of the hot-button mosques is the proposed Temecula Valley Islamic Center. Land for the project was purchased several years ago, but a number of people in the Southern California town have an organized campaign to derail the project.
Opponents have held signs on street corners, and a number of the protesters say their concerns include many facets other than being “anti-Muslim.”
One of the leading spokesmen for the mosque opponents is Mano Bakh, who fled Iran 30 years ago after the Shia-backed Iranian Islamic Revolution
Bakh believes it’s appropriate to oppose the mosque because there are two sides to Islam.
“The main reason is that there are two segments to Islam, the thing that calls itself a religion. One is the religious part of it to pray and the other one is to Shariah law, the way of life,” Bakh explained.
“We have no problem with the praying part of Islam. What we have a problem with is preaching what is in Shariah law,” Bakh continued.
However, the former Iranian citizen and author who has shared his story in his biography, “Escaping Islam,” says the community is willing to extend an olive branch.
“We have given a pledge of friendship to the imam. We say, ‘If you really claim that you’re a moderate and inclined to moderation in Islam,’ sign it,” Bakh said.
However, he continued with some harsh words of clarification.
“Don’t say you’re a moderate Muslim if you’re going to preach the same hatred from the Quran and Islam and Shariah law. He has to sign it and build a pledge of friendship,” Bakh stated.
The olive branch isn’t only for the imam at the Temecula Valley project.
“We would love to have all the imams across the country in the United States sign it, acknowledge it, that you’re a moderate. The reason is simple. In Islam, there is no moderation. You may find a moderate Muslim, but you cannot [find] moderation within the religion that they claim,” Bakh explained.
“We in California, in America, because we want the people to understand more, we have organized a night of education on September 20 at 7 p.m. We have invited several hundred people to come and understand the truth of our position, to understand what we think Islam and the mosque should be and what they want to use the mosque for. That’s two different things,” Bakh continued.
“In my past, I have been a Muslim apostate and wrote about it in my book, ‘Escaping Islam,’” he added.
“In Islam there are five pillars of Islam. If you believe in the five pillars, you’re a Muslim. Those five pillars have nothing to do with the background, has nothing to do with wife-beating, has nothing to do with Shariah,” Bakh stated.
“We are concerned that they are going to preach hate. That’s why they’re not calling it a mosque, they’re calling it an Islamic Education Center. What they’re going to teach is hate, and killing the infidel,” Bakh asserted.
Bakh stated in an interview with Southern California Public Radio that he favors taking away civil liberties from Muslims as long as they promote values contrary to the U. S. Constitution.
The proposed Islamic Education Center will go before a city planning board in November.
A proposed mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., has attracted media attention because the project has been greeted with organized protests. Mosque opponents say they don’t want the 15-acre site to be a training center for militants who may go on suicide bomb missions.
One report alleges that anti-mosque feeling may have been the motive for an act of arson earlier this month at the proposed mosque site. Federal authorities are offering a $20,000 reward for information on the alleged arson.
Other mosques around the country have been getting similar attention, although the levels of opposition vary.
A source in St. Joseph, Mo., who does not want to be identified says the proposed mosque project in that community isn’t drawing public protests. The opposition in the Missouri city about an hour north of Kansas City is coming mostly from blog posts and e-mail campaigns.
Another mosque opened in the affluent Philadelphia suburb of Berwyn, Pa. The Washington Post reported that the Pennsylvania mosque has good relations with its neighbors and opened with little, if any, attention from the media.
The stories of cordial relationships would seem to counter the aggressive anti-mosque position of the protesters. However, the stories of peace and harmony between the mosque and the community don’t seem to square with reality.
American Family Association policy analyst Bryan Fischer says 80 percent of the mosques being built are funded by Middle Eastern money. Most are also acting as training academies.
Read more:
God bless Barack Obama
Unexpected comment among several stunning statements in Miami
By Drew Zahn
MIAMI – On the same morning that Floyd Brown rallied attendees of WND’s “Taking America Back Conference” with reasons to impeach the sitting president, speaker Aaron Klein surprised the audience by declaring, “God bless Barack Obama.”
The words may have sounded strange coming from Klein, WND’s senior reporter, WABC Radio host and author of “The Manchurian President.”
But Klein prefaced his comments by explaining his research over the past two years uncovering Obama’s ties to radical socialists and anti-American influences, as well as his work even longer to sound the alarm over radical Islam.
“God Bless Obama for waking up this country to these [radical Islamic] threats and the threat of what he is,” Klein said. “He did in a year and a half what I couldn’t do in five or six years.”
Alluding to the nation’s sweeping tea party movement, as well as to the crowd gathered in Miami, Fla., for the “Taking America Back” conference, Klein said, “God Bless Obama. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be taking to the streets, we wouldn’t be organizing, we wouldn’t be awakening the nation.”
Klein wasn’t the only speaker at the conference, however, to make bold or surprising proclamations from the platform.
‘King of the birthers’
During a discussion panel in which audience members brought questions from the floor, an unidentified attendee asked the panel how Obama was able to avoid the scrutiny over his eligibility to serve as president that was leveled against his presidential election opponent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
“Let ‘the birther king’ have the first stab,” joked WND CEO Joseph Farah, whose news agency has been at the forefront of investigations into Obama’s eligibility. “We found out in 2008 that there were no controlling authorities in place to vet presidential candidates across the board. No one took responsibility for that.
“But I still get questions every day from people who don’t know,” Farah explained. “They ask, ‘Don’t you think the FBI vetted Obama?’ They believe there are mechanisms in place. Much to my surprise, there are not.”
But Farah also surprised the audience by suggesting the dozens of lawsuits that have been filed challenging Obama’s eligibility may not bring any clarification to the controversy.
“I don’t believe this will be resolved in courts,” Farah said. “I don’t believe any judge at any level will stand up and say, ‘I want to see evidence.’”
Farah did, however, predict an end to the controversy:
“We need to get states to pass legislation in the next session to ensure presidential candidates in the future do not get on the ballot without proving their eligibility. Earlier this year, two states introduced such legislation, and both could have passed if they had enough time [before legislative recess]. I believe you will see two or more states pass that legislation. That’s all it’s going to take in 2012 to get answers.
“I am so convinced that Obama can’t prove his eligibility, or won’t because of something so embarrassing [in his personal records],” Farah predicted, “that he won’t run for re-election in 2012.”
During the session, which focused on the Declaration of Independence as the document than announced America’s birth to the world, Shawn Akers, dean of Liberty University’s Helms School of Government, quipped, “We don’t have any problem finding that birth certificate.”
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US troops detained by Iran
Seven U.S troops are said to have been detained by Iran according to Reuters. No immediate information is available from the White House.
Recently the Iranian president requested the U.S government to release Iranian prisoners held by U.S especially the nuclear scientist who have fled to the U.S.
This can be seen as pressure exerted by the religious fanatic government in Iran to incite a war in the middle east and to derail the middle east peace process.
Iranian border guards detained seven U.S. troops as they tried to illegally enter the Islamic state, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday, without giving a source.
Iran on Tuesday freed one of three Americans held for over a year ago for alleged spying. Sara Shourd was detained near Iran’s border with Iraq in late July 2009 along with two male companions, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. Their families say the three were on a mountain hike in northern Iraq at the time.
Apple launches social network for music called Ping
BBC News – Apple launches social network for music called Ping
Steve Jobs: “It’s a social network all about music”
Apple has launched a social network as part of the latest version of its iTunes software.
Ping, as it is known, allows users to build networks of friends and professional musicians, in a similar way to services such as Twitter.
The service also builds playlists based on what friends are listening to.
Analysts said it represents a challenge to existing music-based social networks such as MySpace.
“It’s a social network all about music,” said Mr Jobs, launching the application at an event in San Francisco.
“We think this will be really popular very fast because 160 million people can switch it on today,” he said.
