The Impact Of Stuxnet Worm On The World 's Nuclear Facilities

Ralph Langner’s article on the Stuxnet worm discusses the hardware, distribution and targets of the attack. He also goes into detail regarding the outlook of future attacks and what we can do to prevent them.

Arjun Makhijani, a prominent researcher for The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, claims that today’s emission rate of carbon dioxide is about nine gigatons annually and that the Earth only has the capability to absorb 3 gigatons annually—thus a problem arises. Furthermore, Makhijani states that about 2/3rds of the carbon dioxide emissions are caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. With those shocking statistics in mind, fossil fuel’s emission of carbon dioxide is thought to be the leading cause of climate change—which is responsible for irreversible and catastrophic changes to the Earth. Yet, scientist had tremendous difficulty finding a safe, effective, and efficient form of energy supply that will met the great consumption rate. Many prominent scientist suggest that nuclear power is the most plausible explanation and solution to the fuel crisis. However, despite nuclear power having a exponentially lower emission rate, it presents its own hazards and threats—such as the Chernobyl and the Three Mile Island incidents. These accidents have many activists and politicians cautious about the prospect of using nuclear power as a complete alternative to fossil fuels—regardless nuclear plants are responsible for 11% of the energy supplied to the world annually (World Nuclear Association.) What many of the activist and politicians seem to overlook is that fossil fuels are an indefinite energy supply and will quite possible run out within

The United States nuclear weapons complex is complicated and very large. Because of this, there are certain government agencies that help to regulate, or control, the nuclear weapons. Those agencies that have a role regarding the nation’s nuclear weapons are the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Commerce, Homeland Security, Department of State (DOS), and most importantly, the Department of Defense (DOD) (whitehouse.gov).

June 2010, VirusBlokAda a computer company in Belarus receives an email containing information on a computer located in Iran that appears to have a virus causing it to continually reboot. The virus is using a “zero-day” exploit from a LNK file of Windows Explorer, then infects the computer when a flash drive (USB stick) is installed and scanned and then the virus is automatically copied from the flash drive to the computer. Zero-day exploits are extremely rare occurring in approximately 1 in 1 million viruses. Because of the rarity of “zero-day” exploits, the cyber community usually takes notice and contacts the appropriate vendor, in this case Microsoft, so the vendor can patch the software and eliminate the issue. Microsoft then began building its patch for Stuxnet, but in the background Stuxnet continued on its mission.

There was an unintended nuclear attack that could be claimed as failure of positive control because according to the positive control of nuclear system means those weapons shall always be deployed according to the legitimate order if the attack is attempted without a legitimate attack then it reflects the failure of positive control of the nuclear weapon.

Fukushima was the second worst nuclear disaster in the history of the world. TEPCO reported that 300 tons of contaminated water had leaked from a storage tank into the ocean. Cod and pollock are important because of their global demand. Japanese cod has tested positive for radiation contamination a number of times since the Fukushima disaster, not only in the Fukushima area, but in many other areas too. 70% of domestic product comes from the Pacific Ocean. This has led to a lot of negative information circulating through Japanese society and a shortage of positive information (or at least an indifference to it. Negative information is known to have a stronger impact on consumers than positive. Very few people are aware of the Japanese government’s

Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the

Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth. One can demolish a whole city, potentially killing millions, and exposed the natural environment and lives of future generations through its long-term catastrophic effects. According to the UNODA- United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (2011), “Although nuclear weapons have only been used twice in warfare- in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945-about 22,000 reportedly remains in our world today and there have been over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted to date.” Nuclear weapons have been viewed as a threat to peace by world leaders. There have been debates of whether to let Iran and North Korea acquire nuclear weapons, leaders all around the world along with Liberals believe that it is a threat to peace and should limit the spread whereas neo realist have another belief that nuclear weapon can make the world a peaceful place. Because states would fear to attack each other. For example the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and cold war- there were only threats and war did not happen because of nuclear deterrence. The Cuban missile crisis has frequently been portrayed as the only time where the world stood in the point of nuclear war between the superpowers. This is an example of how nuclear weapons were used to threaten the rival. Another examples would be that of India and Pakistan before they acquire nuclear weapon , they fought three bloody wars after having their independence but since 1998, after acquiring

Kim Zetter an investigative reporter with Wired Magazine online calls Stuxnet, “a piece of software that would ultimately make history as the world’s first real cyberweapon.” (Zetter, 2011, sec. 1)

A lot of opinions and meanings has been given to the word “Cyberterrorism”. Some of these meanings and definitions varies. In this light, Gordon and Ford (2003) are concerned that when 10 people define cyberterrorism and nine of the given answers are different, and these 10 people represent different government agencies tasked with safeguarding national assets and infrastructure, then it becomes a critical issue.

Cyber warfare is a battle without causalities, a war waged only by written words, fought digitally by those who are bent at disrupting the infrastructure of a nation built on sweat, labor and concrete. Digital battles that are being fought not for money, not for a simple website defacement proclaiming you are the most ‘l33t hax0r on the interwebs’. One of the most major, yet under reported example of this; a lowly worm named Stuxnet. A worm, by the most mundane of definitions, is a self-replicating program, usually malicious, and whose

By the year of 2016, investments in online security are expected to reach $86bn (Contu et al, 2012). Although this might seem a large sum of money, it is considered necessary since there is an increase in online risks from all over the world. Professional hackers develop malware on a global scale and on a 24/7 basis. Hackers have five objectives when spreading malware over the Internet: to infect/distribute, to steal, to persist, to control and for intelligence (Morris, 2010).

When nuclear weapons were created everyone was amazed by it. It was a huge accomplishment. The first nuclear weapons were used in the cold war. Soon after that they were used in about every war. Till this day they are still used because it helps not having wars go on for so long but is it worth causing all this damage?

The USA has reported Nuclear Terrorism as the number one issue that all Americans are facing today. Nuclear Terrorist attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, California, and New York have raised tension between the US and other countries, especially Islamic countries such as Iran. Nuclear terrorism has killed many innocent people around the globe. It has become the subject of debate in the USA since the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 (Muller, 2016). Nuclear arms ' production is one of the root cause of the nuclear terrorism, therefore, increase in nuclear arms ' production has resulted in an increase in Nuclear Terrorist attacks. The USA and other five countries have introduced the Iran Nuclear Deal to stop Nuclear Terrorism. I believe that the USA should also concentrate in other sectors such as education, poverty, and job opportunities in Iran to reduce Nuclear terrorism. Education will spread awareness among citizens and will result in the citizens ' involvement in a high-earning job rather than in Nuclear Terrorism to earn money. Poverty problems have compelled Iranians to get involved in terrorism. Therefore, improvement in the standard of living is required. Additionally, implementation of the Iran Nuclear Deal will reduce production of Nuclear arms which will lead to the reduction in Nuclear Terrorism.

Since 2002, when the international community discovered the undeclared nuclear facilities and the magnitude of the Islamic Republic of Iran 's nuclear programme, several international players and Western countries have focused their efforts on hindering its nuclear agenda. Although the Iranian government has always stressed its civilian objectives, the programme has been considered an important challenge to the non-proliferation regime and international security.