Stuxnet

Stuxnet is a virus that was discovered in June 2010. While it spread to almost any computers without prejudice, it only caused issues with infected Siemens industrial equipment and software running on a Windows system.

From what security and research companies could determine, the worm appeared to be targeting uranium enrichment infrastructure. It did most of its damage in Iran, but also affected Indonesia and India. Due to the sophistication of Stuxnet, there's speculation that the US and Israel may have developed and distributed the worm to cripple Iran's nuclear program. However, no proof was found to determine the truth behind the speculation.

How did Stuxnet infect the computers?

At the time Iran believed that air gapping its sensitive computer would provide more than enough security. However, it's believed that an employee plugged a candy dropped a USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drive into a computer that allowed the virus to infect the air gapped computers.

Overview of Stuxnet

Below is a great video overview of the Stuxnet virus.

APT, Cyberwar, Malware, Sabotage, Security terms, Unit 8200, Zero-day