Cyber attacks hit a new level of achievement  when the advent of stuxnet worm occurred.  This is the first time an internet worm has been used to attack a potential military target and will undoubtedly signal a new age of the potential of cyberspace in our coming future.

The year 2010 showed the first major known use of a worm attack against a specific target. The Stuxnet worm, which infected computers across the globe, was created to physically and not figuratively to destroy a specific military target: Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities. The goal of the worm was to target Siemens Industrial software and equipment, and specifically the computers which ran the main nuclear enrichment facilities. This was done by designing the worm to activate only in the presence of a precise configuration of Siemens controller, which exist only in a centrifuge plant.

The Stuxnet worm was designed to be hidden, dormant or a long periods of time. The end objective, which the worm successfully carried out was to accelerate the spinning rotors in the centrifuges beyond bust frequency causing the bearings and the tubes of the rotors to break .The worm also had the ability to send out a “man-in the middle code” which actually transmitted false industrial process control signs, completely masking the actions of the worm from detection of the diagnostic systems .

This man in the middle code prevented the safety system from responding, which would have saved the centrifuge by shutting it down before it could self destruct Israel and the United States, the countries likely responsible for development and implementation of the worm, caused Iran to believe that both countries initiated the first stages of cyber war, resulting in the creation of a new Iranian cyber command to prevent a future Stuxnet worm.

As a consequence, Iran has out right stated that part of their cyber command will be the development and implementation of “retaliatory measures” against scores of nations that Iran sees as hostile to their interests, Israel and the United States chief among them. This example is important since it shows the first time a cyber attack has been used to tangibly destroy a physical object that was arguably secure  and emphasizes that possibility for the future. The example also emphasizes the   escalation of conflict  with Iran and promotes evidence that a cyber arms race could come in the future, if cyber attacks are being used against secure state facilities.

Stuxnet is probably a small sign of what is to come and may prove to be the single catalyst of the true nature of the cyber security crisis yet to unfold despite skeptics claims.