Stuxnet Variants Likely To Attack Industrial Infrastructures, Warn Experts

According to security experts and government officials, the familiar Stuxnet computer worm is capable of getting modified so it can strike critical systems that control industrial infrastructures across the globe. The worm therefore is the greatest of Internet threats for world industries, they stated on November 17, 2010. Security reported this on msndc.com dated November 17, 2010.

Addressing the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, 4 cyber-security specialists said that the Stuxnet's variants were capable of attacking several critical infrastructures like water supplies, power grid to transportation systems. PHYSORG.com published this on November 17, 2010.

Issuing a warning, the security specialists stated that industries were getting more-and-more susceptible to Stuxnet since they combined computer systems and networks for enhancing efficiency. The complicated malware invaded systems, which regulated critical operations including manufacturing, and then gained control over the same. Not only that the malware was also very sophisticated in quietly capturing sensitive data on intellectual property, the specialists added.

Said acting director Sean McGurk of the National Cyber-security and Communications Integration Center, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the center hadn't witnessed the collaborated attempts of vulnerabilities in IT and exploitations of industrial control fully packaged in such a unique manner. PCWorld reported this on November 18, 2010.

President and CEO Michael Assante of the non-profit National Board of Information Security Examiners added that Stuxnet proved that businesses and governments required embracing fresh approaches for tackling cyber-threats. The malware was at its minimum an indication for digitally reliant and improved nations to become alert, while at its maximum it was future attackers' blueprint, the official added. PCWorld reported this.

Furthermore, Assante told law-framers that it was necessary to keep control systems and other networks separate so that hackers found it more difficult to access the former. According to him, it wasn't possible to overlook familiar system flaws while just consider existing system constraints. One couldn't but admit that the existing security strategies were extremely incoherent and were frequently set in unintended manners that prevented efforts for dealing with cyber-security challenges, Assante noted. PHYSORG.com published this on November 17, 2010.

Related article: Stuxnet malware Signed With JMicron Certificate

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