Stuxnet | The Computer Virus That Caused World War 3

in 2010 a computer virus was discovered. in thousands of the control systems that. operate factories. power plants and nuclear reactors around. the world. this virus was 20 times more. sophisticated than any malware. ever recorded it could halt oil. pipelines. destroy water treatment plants and bring. down entire power grids. this virus was called stuxnet and we. should all be concerned. let's find out why.

in january 2010 inspectors from the. international atomic energy agency. were visiting the natanz uranium. enrichment plant in iraq. they noticed that the centrifuges which. are used to enrich uranium gas. were tearing themselves apart one after. another hundreds of them. nobody could figure out why not the. inspectors not the iranian technicians. who worked on site. not even the engineers who built the. system meanwhile. a computer security firm in belarus got.

a strange request from a client in iran. their machines were rebooting over and. over again even completely wiping the. hard drives and reinstalling the. operating systems didn't help. again the problem was a mystery but when. the technicians pulled apart the. operating systems. they found a new and very unusual virus. they called it stuxnet. and stuxnet was infecting computers all. over the world and spreading fast. now these events seemed unrelated at the. time. but they were very much connected cyber.

security experts knew stuxnet wasn't. ordinary malware thrown together by some. basement hacker. the first clue was the size of the code. base most viruses are 10 maybe 20. kilobytes. stuxnet was 500 kilobytes and. uncompressed. it was 1.2 megabytes that's a pretty. large piece of code to go undetected. then analysts transferred stuxnet to a. new computer just to see what would. happen. now the test computer was not your. grandma's old compact laptop from 1997. the machine was a state-of-the-art.

highly protected workstation designed. for cyber security threat detection all. the bells and whistles. but as soon as the stuxnet files were. copied over the new computer was. immediately infected. without anybody doing anything and. without triggering a single alert. and that's very unusual when you install. software in your computer. it needs to be digitally signed with a. trusted certificate and the developer. supplies a certificate that your. computer checks against trusted. manufacturers. apple logitech whatever a lot of viruses. tamper with the signature.

the certificate to try to trick your. operating system into allowing it to. install. now luckily virus protection usually. catches this. and you've probably seen that warning. when you're trying to install software. that's not from a trusted source. this catches a lot of nasties but. stuxnet didn't have. altered certificates it had valid. certificates. stolen from two trusted sources j micron. and real tech. now these companies make all kinds of. drivers for hard drives usb sticks. sound cards tons of stuff you probably.

have their software on your computer. right now i definitely do. and when the creators of the stuxnet. worms signed their files with a stolen. cert. they wanted to make sure that windows. would install it very quietly. without any warning and if anyone. bothered to look at the cert they. wouldn't care because it was valid now. stealing a valid digital signature is. like trying to rob a bank vault that's. locked inside another bank vault the. security around them is. sci-fi spy movie level stuff they had to.

physically steal the certificate from. inside these companies. that really doesn't happen but it. happened some more digging around. the code showed that as soon as stuxnet. infected a computer. it started probing the system looking. for flash drives usb sticks. and other storage devices and because of. the signing certificates. windows happily allowed it to do so what. security experts had discovered. is one of the rarest and most dangerous. kinds of software vulnerabilities and it. was at this time that they went from.

curious and amazed to fearing for their. lives. look i'm not suicidal if i show up dead. on monday. you know it wasn't me what security. experts had discovered. is called a zero day exploit it's called. this because when a vulnerability is. unknown to the software developer. and microsoft and the anti-virus. community and the rest of the world. that means there are zero days of. protection against it nobody knows about. a zero day vulnerability.

except the attacker exploiting it a zero. day is so rare and valuable. that you can actually sell it on the. dark net for hundreds of thousands of. dollars. not a good idea it's not think about. this. cyber security companies research over. 12 million viruses a year. and in that time they might find maybe. 10. or 12 zero day exploits it's a once in a. million occurrence. but stuxnet contained four zero day. exploits. this is unheard of it never happened. before and it hasn't happened since.

eventually it was discovered that. stuxnet wasn't trying to steal passwords. or data it was actually targeting the. software on. siemens programmable logic controllers. called plc's. now plc's are small computers used in. factories and industry that control. pretty much everything assembly lines. water pumps power plants. and nuclear refining critical. infrastructure. runs on plc's if you can hack a plc. you can take down an entire country. without firing a single shot. now this had people very nervous because.

industries all over the world were. reporting their plc's were. infected with stuxnet but it was just. sitting there nobody knew what it was. going to do. or when was the power grid just going to. turn off. was water or gas could it stop flowing. nobody knew. it felt like a ticking time bomb because. it was. even though the virus was spreading all. over the world to thousands of computers. per day. it was primarily targeting one country. iran. more specifically it was targeting the.

iranian nuclear facility. in natanz that doesn't sound like an. accident. it wasn't a virus this complex and this. dangerous. requires millions of dollars to create. it takes time. the best programming talent in the world. and absolute secrecy. experts at first suspected and then they. were positive. that stuxnet could only have been. designed by a country. looking to cripple or wage war against. another country. this was a state-sponsored attack to. design and deploy a cyber weapon like.

stuxnet. you need immense financial resources a. military intelligence infrastructure. and a motive to wreak havoc on an enemy. nation. do we know what country created it we do. but. they won't admit it so who made this. thing ah you're not gonna like it. no shh an intelligence agency. probably probably who has an interest in. uh setting back the iranian nuclear. program yes stuxnet was aggressive.

but very quiet if stuxnet is on your. computer and you plug in a usb thumb. drive. boom the usb drive is immediately and. quietly infected. you don't have to run a program open a. web page or click anything you then plug. that usb drive into a different computer. on a different network. boom every machine on that network is. infected and this is exactly. what happened in iran the nuclear. centrifuges at natanz were air-gapped. meaning they weren't connected to any. outside network and this is usually a.

good way to keep a network secure. the only way to infect a clean air gap. network. is user error yep user error. outside contractors who were brought in. to work on the iranian nuclear facility. in natanz. had also brought stuxnet in through. infected usb drives. and once stuxnet was in it deliberately. targeted the siemens plcs. which operated uranium enrichment. equipment so these plcs control the rate. of spin in the nuclear centrifuge. it's been too fast or too slow the. entire thing tears itself apart so.

stuxnet got into the centrifuges. and then yeah and then what and then it. did nothing. it just looked around and kept logs of. everything happening in the equipment. but after 13 days stuxnet started. changing the speed of the centrifuges. every 15 minutes. sometimes faster sometimes slower. normally this is something a technician. would spot immediately but stuxnet was. using the data it collected earlier. to report back that everything was fine. but everything wasn't fine was it.

it was not because stuxnet changes the. rate of spin every 50 minutes the. equipment weakens. and eventually tears itself apart. stuxxnet was also disrupting power feeds. causing centrifuges to explode and once. the equipment started to fail. there was no way to stop it even those. big red buttons you see on machines that. you hit in case of emergency. those were disabled too somehow stuxnet. thought of everything. not only was this virus created by. highly talented programmers. there was obviously input from experts. in nuclear enrichment technology.

reactor operations safety protocols that. is a dangerous virus. over a thousand uranium centrifuges were. destroyed. by stuxnet this set iran's nuclear. enrichment program back months. maybe years why well. iran's nuclear ambitions must be stopped. they have to be stopped we all have to. stop it. now that's the one message i have for. you today thank you. in the early 2000s iran was ramping up.

its nuclear energy and enrichment. program. this was in violation of international. agreements so a lot of the work was done. in secret. also a violation now iran argued that it. had a right to pursue nuclear energy. but u.s and israeli intelligence. agencies suspected iran of using its. civilian nuclear program. as cover for weapons development so the. u.s. imposed sanctions and all sorts of other. things to try to pressure iran to slow. down its nuclear program. and deal but even with stuxnet and other.

setbacks. iran kept enriching uranium they said. that they needed nuclear power to. provide energy to the population. energy don't they make oil over there. look i'm just telling you what happened. i'm not taking side this isn't a. political channel fine fine go ahead so. every time iran agreed to suspend its. enrichment program. diplomatic talks would break down and. they would go back to work. then they would stop again and start. again and it went on like this for a. while. but then the cia received thousands of. pages of documents.

indicating that iran was modifying the. nose cone of a missile. to carry a nuclear warhead oh no oh yes. then it was discovered that iran had. acquired and hidden from. inspectors blueprints for more advanced. centrifuge tech iran claimed that these. documents were forged. but later admitted that they had. secretly imported equipment from a. foreign source. now by this time israel was getting fed. up and. threatening military action now bombing.

iranian nuclear facilities might have. been a short-term solution. but almost certainly would have led to. war in the region and perhaps globally. they not another war yep another war. so the us's intelligence community. including nsa cia. and the newly formed u.s cyber command. got to work on what they called. operation olympic games olympic games. was a campaign of cyber intrusion. disruption and sabotage of irani. wait the u.s government created stuxnet.

what i i haven't give you enough clues. well i was just so enthralled with the. stories. i appreciate that now officially no. country has acknowledged developing. stuxnet. but through leaks at nsa and cia and. using common sense. it's generally believed that stuxnet was. developed by the united states with help. from. israel the uk and their allies dumb. question. go ahead when you destroy something with. a bomb or with a virus. isn't it the same thing well funny you.

should ask that. it's a act of war please let's. be frank here okay. countries are constantly hacking each. other and spying on each other looking. for information. and most countries have agencies and. protocols to protect against this it's a. game of intelligence cat and mouse it's. been going on forever. but stuxnet was the first time a. nation-state developed. proactive offensive weaponized code.

that could do actual physical damage to. another country. if a nuclear reactor could be destroyed. from the inside. what other real world damage could. stuxnet or other malicious code do. if you attack a power grid or a water. supply lots of people are gonna die. so iran felt like this was not a simple. covert act of espionage. but a blatant act of war committed by. the us and its allies. what did they do about it well what. would you do fight back. that's exactly what they did iran sent. out a virtual call to arms.

and quickly built one of the largest. state sponsored hacker groups in the. world. they got to work they attacked saudi. aramco the largest oil company in the. world. and destroyed every computer they had. thirty thousand machines hard drives. were white. clean phone lines were down email. offline. it was a nightmare no no then they went. for america's financial infrastructure. and levied attacks against wells fargo. pnc. and bank of america taking down banking. systems all over the world.

and there were other attacks now iran. didn't officially take credit for these. attacks but. then again they didn't really have to. the message was clear. come for us we'll come for you a plc. attacks did happen before stuxnet. viruses have destroyed power generators. dumped raw sewage on cities disrupted. railways. there was even an attack in the 90s. against worcester airport in. massachusetts that grounded flights for. a day. but those attacks were done by single. hackers and disgruntled employees. when you have the resources of an entire.

country deployed for state-sponsored. attacks. the world becomes a much more dangerous. place but now that we know about it. we're safe from stuxnet right no. no for years cyber attacks on our nation. have been met with indecision and in. action. the internet has been a great equalizer. any information available online is. available to everyone. everywhere forever now you can't buy a. tank or a bomb online hello.

darknet okay the dark net is different. and we have an episode coming up on that. so while you're waiting for it hit the. like and subscribe all the buttons but. don't try to buy a tank on the dark net. what you can find online. are plans and blueprints to make all. kinds of scary things. still if you try to put together some. doomsday device in your garage. you're going to raise some eyebrows i. mean my wife can't spray paint a flower. pot in the driveway without our nosy. neighbor coming over. i can only imagine what he'd do if i. started welding together pieces for an. emp. device that would make a good diy video.

it would i'd watch that. but stuxnet isn't a thing it's it's. lines of code but it's lines of code. that can damage. actual property and hurt actual people. and the stuxnet code. it's just out there now if you know what. you're doing you can take the code apart. make a few changes and now you've got a. really sophisticated weapon. you can even do this if you don't know. what you're doing which is probably more. dangerous. now as we speak thousands of people. around the world. have the stuxnet code and they're. tinkering with it seeing what different.

pieces can be used in their own attacks. there have already been a few viruses. inspired by its engineering the dooku. virus attacked industrial facilities in. 2011. flame in 2012 also attacked facilities. in iran. and flame could record audio skype calls. take screenshots. log keystrokes all kinds of stuff in. destroyer. attacked power facilities in ukraine in. 2016. and there's tons of others stuxnet is. the best cyber weapon the united states. has ever developed and it gave it to the.

world. for free now for perspective natanz in. iran was a brand new nuclear facility. with an. gapped network and a team of security. professionals working around the clock. and it was taken down easily but a lot. of industrial control systems are not as. sophisticated. some are connected to the internet. without default passwords and many. systems crucial to a country's. infrastructure. are running software that's 30 even 40. years old not just at iran. here in the us in the uk everywhere. how vulnerable are those systems to.

attack iran has already said that cyber. attacks. will be answered with cyber attacks and. i think we can assume that every country. in the world has this policy i mean it's. national defense. well remember how i said the internet is. a great equalizer. well think about this for a second. throughout world history. global powers maintain their status. through wealth. and military might but today you don't. need a trillion dollar defense budget in. order to impose your political will. on the world now all you need is a dozen.

smart programmers and lots of mountain. dew. now that the world's richest and poorest. nations all. employ skilled hackers is cyber warfare. like the nuclear arms race. where mutually assured destruction means. that no country would dare attack. another. i mean surely no country would risk. retaliation by unleashing further chaos. on the world. right your sarcasm is palpable. [Music]. the link between the outage in. mumbai in october last year and the.

suspected role of chinese hackers. chinese hackers backed by the chinese. state. targeted two indian vaccine makers. tonight as researchers raced to develop. a vaccine for the coronavirus hackers. from china and other countries. are working just as furiously to steal. that research. to create their own operation olympic. games gave us stuxnet. the most advanced and destructive cyber. weapon ever used when it was unleashed. on iran. it was an hiroshima moment and like.

hiroshima. stuxnet was only the beginning a test. case for. more advanced more devastating cyber. weapons. and one of those weapons has already. been deployed that weapon is nitro zeus. yeah that sounds like the name of a. greek energy drink. you're really throwing ice water on my. drama here pal yeah i'm sorry i i make. jokes when i'm nervous. okay back to iran after coming pretty. close to war. cooler heads prevailed and iran along.

with several world powers. signed a nuclear peace agreement that. was the ideal outcome. but that outcome wasn't always certain. so in case diplomacy failed and war. broke out the united states had. and has a cyber contingency plan the. plan. code name nitro zeus is a virus far more. complex than stuxnet. and was developed by thousands of people. at a cost of hundreds of millions of. dollars. nitro zeus or nz was designed to infect. iranian. infrastructure and await orders in case.

of war. nz would disable iran's air defenses. disrupt. military command and control take down. parts of the power grid. it would attack domestic communications. transportation. banks financial systems now i don't have. to point out. that these aren't just military targets. millions of civilians. would be harmed if nitro zeus or a virus. like that. was used on anyone now according to. former intelligence operatives nitro. zeus has already been deployed. and is living in iranian infrastructure.

right now just awaiting instructions. now that's pretty scary but what scares. me more about nitro zeus is. what happens when that code gets out. it's inevitable that more countries will. acquire the capacity to. use cyber both for espionage and for. destructive. activities you'll hear people say that. the next world war will be fought in. cyberspace. they're wrong about that the united. states iran. china the uk russia north korea.

they're not preparing for cyber war. they're already fighting it. and i'm being completely honest now off. script. researching this episode was stressful. and i'm left with more questions than. answers. like how can citizens who are threatened. by cyber attacks. have an honest conversation about these. dangers when our. own governments don't acknowledge they. participate how can one country ask. another to disarm. when it won't disarm itself but the. biggest question of all. how can the global community ensure that.

destructive cyber weapons like stuxnet. and nitro zeus don't fall into the wrong. hands. don't create them in the first place. that would be a good start. until there's a global effort to address. this threat all we can hope for is that. our governments can keep us safe. and hope our leaders can avoid another. international crisis. that's a lot to hope for the cyber war. is here. and now i find myself longing for the. days of the cold war. when a concrete wall ran through berlin.

when proxy wars were. fought on every continent when global. superpowers had thousands of nuclear. weapons aimed at each other. just one decision away from armageddon i. long for those days. because back then the world was a much. safer place. thanks for hanging out with us today my. name is aj that's hecklefish. this has been the y-files if you had fun. or learned anything today do me a favor. comment like subscribe. share do all that stuff the algorithm is.

a she-wolf. with sharp claws and teeth but with your. help we can defeat her defeat. the she-wolf until next time be safe be. kind. and know that you are appreciated. [Music].

you.