by jurvetson
[Ralph Langer at TED discussing Stuxnet]
Feature: How digital detectives deciphered Stuxnet, the most menacing malware in history
[Via Ars Technica]
It was January 2010, and investigators with the International Atomic Energy Agency had just completed an inspection at the uranium enrichment plant outside Natanz in central Iran, when they realized that something was off within the cascade rooms where thousands of centrifuges were enriching uranium.
Natanz technicians in white lab coats, gloves, and blue booties were scurrying in and out of the “clean” cascade rooms, hauling out unwieldy centrifuges one by one, each sheathed in shiny silver cylindrical casings.
Any time workers at the plant decommissioned damaged or otherwise unusable centrifuges, they were required to line them up for IAEA inspection to verify that no radioactive material was being smuggled out in the devices before they were removed. The technicians had been doing so for more than a month.
[More]
Read the whole thing. The story of Stuxnet is both interesting and frightening. This is a well written narrative of just what was involved and of some of the people who worked things out. Just remember that the connected nature of the world today means that just average people can become heroes without having to be in the direct line of fire.
It also reveals just how vulnerable Windows machines are to very sophisticated exploits.
This is a nice description of what went down. I might even buy the inevitable book that comes out. There should be a movie – as the action takes place in the US, Japan, Germany, France and the Middle East. Then throw in paranoid worries that the creators of the virus could kill this guys.
I can already imagine the faces on the computer guys as they realize that this is a very sophisticated bit of malware that could only have been constructed for one purpose by a group with almost unlimited resources. Could be a fun movie. Think ‘All the President’s Men.’
Imagine this scene:
Langner called a German client of his, who works for a top maker of uranium-enrichment equipment.
“I have one question for you,” Langner said to him. “Is it possible to destroy a centrifuge just by manipulating the controller code?”
“I can’t tell you that, Ralph, it’s classified information,” the man replied.
Or this:
Although the researchers didn’t really believe their lives were at risk for exposing Stuxnet, they laughed nervously as they recalled the paranoia and dark humor that crept into their conversations at the time. O Murchu began noticing weird clicking noises on his phone, and one Friday told Chien and Falliere, “If I turn up dead and I committed suicide on Monday, I just want to tell you guys, I’m not suicidal.”
The day news of the assassination plots broke, Chien joked to his colleagues that if a motorcycle ever pulled alongside his car, he’d take out the driver with a quick swerve of his wheels. When he left work that day and stopped at the first intersection, he was shaken—just for a moment—as he glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw a motorcycle pull up behind him.
This movie could have spies, average guys thrust into international intrigue, the high tech aspect of looking at the cutting edge of security in a connected world. Wikileaks could even be involved.
They got the word out using blog posts perhaps because the mainstream media was not interested. Lots of area for scary moments.
I mean, they have a secure room every bit as protected as all those P4 labs seen in movies from The Andromeda Strain to Outbreak. I guess they would have to have some action for mass appeal – there were some assassinations involved – but I bet a good screenwriter could do that easily without taking away from the story here.
This was figured out by individuals spread across the world, coming together in an ad hoc fashion to solve a mystery with little outside help. And they only did this because of the openness and transparency of the information world, even as the virus was constructed to hide itself from them.
I wonder who will play Liam O Murchu, Nicolas Falliere, Ralph Langer or Eric Chien in the movie? They sound like people I would really like to meet.
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