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Georgi Genchev
SES 360B
April 23, 2015
Assignment 15
Cyber Crime and Stuxnet
We all have become digital. Our lives are now dependent on technology, we shop from
eBay, we date through Facebook, we talk on skype, we pay our utilities through the web, and we
do business online. Computers, an invention that dates back not many decades ago, now hold our
private emails, pictures and all of our personal information. This data is precious and
cybercriminals want it. The PBSs Rise of the Hackers goes behind the scenes of the fast-paced
world of cryptography to meet the scientists battling to keep our data safe.
A part of the movie intrigued me a lot. It was the one about stuxnet. It is an Internet worm
that infects computers primarily through USB sticks, which allows it to get into computers and
networks not normally connected to the Internet. Once inside a network, it uses a variety of
mechanisms to propagate to other machines within that network and gain privilege once it has
infected those machines.
The interesting about stuxnet is that it doesnt act like a criminal worm. It doesnt spread
indiscriminately. It doesnt steal credit card information or account login credentials. It doesnt
herd infected computers into a botnet. It uses multiple zero-day vulnerabilities. A criminal group
would be smarter to create different worm variants and use one in each. Stuxnet performs
sabotage. It doesnt threaten sabotage, like a criminal organization intent on extortion might.

In the movie a suggestion that it is a result of the efforts of the U.S. and its allies in the
fight against terrorism. Here is probably the most recognizable case in which stuxnet is involved.
In January 2010, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency visiting the
Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran noticed that centrifuges used to enrich uranium gas were
failing at an unprecedented rate. The cause was a complete mysteryapparently as much to the
Iranian technicians replacing the centrifuges as to the inspectors observing them. It later turned
out that the computer virus has cause all this malfunctions.
All this shows that a new era of computer warfare is coming. Using such methods might
turn out to be very effective for the purposes of government and corporate espionage. The
question on the morality of using such techniques is debatable, but if done for a cause, such as
prevention of building a nuclear weapon, I find it justifiable.