“May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.”


"This report is maybe 12-years-old. Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried till River dug it up. This is what they feared she knew. And they were right to fear because there's a whole universe of folk who are gonna know it, too. They're gonna see it. Somebody has to speak for these people. You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything I know this, they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, 10, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people . . . better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave." ~ Captain Malcom Reynolds

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Interesting read

A well-written overview of the attack of the Stuxnet virus attack on the Iranian nuclear program earlier this year. While the article doesn't go into depth, it's relatively common-knowledge as to who the players were and the reasons for the attack.

I find it interesting both in terms of the level of professional skill involved - the best operations occur when the target doesn't even realize you were there until much later (if ever) - and for the glimpse of the future it provides. As events like this, the Wikileaks document issues, and others have shown us, computers and their vulnerabilities are going to be just as important to the battlefields between nation-states as an infantry battalion or aircraft squadron.

The cyberpunk science-fiction of a few decades ago comes closer each and every year.

1 comment:

Jon said...

Score one for Mossad.

(I figure the CIA would still be waiting for approval... ;))

That is also the most comprehensive article on the viral attack I've seen yet.